NASA's Mission to Touch the Sun Launches Next Week

Humanity’s first visit to a star begins next week. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will soon travel closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it — a historic mission that will revolutionize our understanding of the Sun and our solar system.  

Parker Solar Probe is slated to launch August 11 onboard a Delta IV-Heavy with Upper Stage rocket, lifting off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Join NASA scientists from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday, August 2 – days before launch – to learn about Parker Solar Probe’s plans for fun in the Sun this summer.

The Sun is the only star we can study up close. While solving age-old mysteries of our Sun, Parker Solar Probe will also shed light on the very nature of stars throughout the universe. The mission is named after Dr. Eugene Parker, whose contributions to science transformed our understanding of the Sun and predicted the existence of the solar wind. It is the first NASA mission to be dedicated to a living person.