I'm Andy Driesman and this is Solar 60 I'm here at Astrotech space operations
cleanroom where technicians just finished mounting a very special plaque
to the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft with me is Nicky Fox parker Solar Probe
project scientists Nicky tell us about this the Parker Solar Probe mission is
named for Dr. Eugene Parker from the University of Chicago this is a historic
event alone as it is the first time NASA has named a mission after a person
during their lifetime and it's named for gene because in 1958 he published a
landmark paper which predicted the existence of the million mile per hour
solar wind and its widespread influence across the solar system the plaque we
just installed bears an inscription from Dr. Parker let's see what lies ahead
which is so appropriate for this pioneering mission the plaque also
houses a memory card that contains dr. Parker's groundbreaking 1958 paper and
photos of him from throughout his career also on the memory card are the more
than 1.1 million names that people from all over the globe sent in during our
send your name to the Sun campaign and we're so thrilled to begin this journey
of discovery with so many new friends thanks Nicky and thank you all for
sending your names to the Sun it's an honor to work with such an amazing team
of scientists engineers designers technicians and managers to build tests
launch and fly a spacecraft on a mission to touch the Sun as Dr. Parker says
let's see what lies ahead that's it from the clean room and Astrotech I'm Andy
Driesman and this is solar 60