More than 1.1 Million Names Installed on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe

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A Parker Solar Probe team member from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory holds the memory card containing 1,137,202 names submitted by the public to travel to the Sun aboard the spacecraft. The card was installed on a plaque which was placed on the spacecraft on May 18, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. The plaque dedicated the mission to Eugene Parker, who first theorized the existence of the solar wind. Parker Solar Probe is the first NASA mission to be named for a living person.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

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A plaque dedicating NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission to its namesake, Eugene Parker, who first theorized the existence of the solar wind, was installed onto the spacecraft on May 18, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. The memory card at bottom of the plaque contains 1,137,202 names submitted by the public to travel to the Sun aboard the spacecraft, along with photos of Parker and a copy of his groundbreaking 1958 scientific paper. Parker Solar Probe is the first NASA mission to be named for a living person.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Still image

A plaque dedicating NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission to its namesake, Eugene Parker, who first theorized the existence of the solar wind, was installed onto the spacecraft on May 18, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. The memory card at bottom of the plaque contains 1,137,202 names submitted by the public to travel to the Sun aboard the spacecraft, along with photos of Parker and a copy of his groundbreaking 1958 scientific paper. Parker Solar Probe is the first NASA mission to be named for a living person.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Still image

A plaque dedicating NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission to its namesake, Eugene Parker, who first theorized the existence of the solar wind, was installed onto the spacecraft on May 18, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. The memory card at bottom of the plaque contains 1,137,202 names submitted by the public to travel to the Sun aboard the spacecraft, along with photos of Parker and a copy of his groundbreaking 1958 scientific paper. Parker Solar Probe is the first NASA mission to be named for a living person.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Still image

A plaque dedicating NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission to its namesake, Eugene Parker, who first theorized the existence of the solar wind, was installed onto the spacecraft on May 18, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. The memory card at bottom of the plaque contains 1,137,202 names submitted by the public to travel to the Sun aboard the spacecraft, along with photos of Parker and a copy of his groundbreaking 1958 scientific paper. The plaque is mounted below the high-gain antenna (the round object with gray covering), which the spacecraft will use to transmit data back to Earth. Parker Solar Probe is the first NASA mission to be named for a living person.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Still image

A plaque dedicating NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission to its namesake, Eugene Parker, who first theorized the existence of the solar wind, was installed onto the spacecraft on May 18, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. The memory card at bottom contains 1,137,202 names submitted by the public to travel to the Sun aboard the spacecraft, along with photos of Parker and a copy of his groundbreaking 1958 scientific paper. The plaque is mounted below the high-gain antenna (the round object with gray covering), which the spacecraft will use to transmit data back to Earth. Parker Solar Probe is the first NASA mission to be named for a living person.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman