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In 1958 scientists put a vision that 

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we need to fly a spacecraft within
the atmosphere of the Sun,

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but it is so challenging, extremely
difficult to realize, 

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that it took us six decades to build
a system that can fly safely

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and reliably within the atmosphere
of a star.

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Three. Two. One. Zero.

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Liftoff of the mighty Delta Four Heavy

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rocket with NASA's Parker Solar Probe.

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A daring mission to shed light
on the mysteries of our closest star,

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the Sun.

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[Chatter and ambient sounds]

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It looked like we had a hit
there for a second.

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Yes, Nick.

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I believe we do have detection of 
beacon tone one.

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[Applause]

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There it is.

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See it?

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There it is.

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[Applause]

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Parker Solar Probe is 3.8

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3.8

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3.8

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million miles from the
surface of the Sun.

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It is so incredible to just realize

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this is the moment that
we designed this mission for.

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3.8 million miles
may not sound that close,

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but if I put the Sun and the Earth
one meter apart,

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Parker Solar Probe would
be four centimeters from the Sun.

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It's the closest human made
object to a star

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and also the fastest traveling
at 430,000 miles an hour.

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I mean, we're flying
through the atmosphere of a star.

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That's not easy to do.

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It's something we've never done before.

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This is our first close encounter
with a star

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and it’s really just amazing.

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This area that Parker’s going into

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is just so crucial to our
understanding of the Sun

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and its impact on the Earth.

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That solar interaction, that
space weather,

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those billions of tons of material
that the Sun can throw at us,

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interacts with our power
grids, can interact with our technology,

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so it's really important
to understand them at their source

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and how they get all that energy.

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When we were thinking about
designing a spacecraft to go to someplace

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that had never been before, and it's
actually going there to study the Sun,

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and so you're kind of saying,
what am I designing?

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What are the environments
we’re designing for?

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It has to go from the deepest,
coldest, space to a very warm area

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and keep everything working
at a little bit above room temperature.

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It's designed to go
to such an extreme environment.

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You look at it and it doesn't quite
look like most other spacecraft.

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The whole thing is designed

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such that the heat shield is taking
most of the brunt of the heat of the Sun.

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The heat shield will be at about
1800 degrees Fahrenheit

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and it's protecting the spacecraft.

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So the spacecraft's
actually basically at room temperature.

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This is such a great feat of engineering

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and it really shows how capable
we are in space.

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This is something that

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we've been wanting to do since 1958
when it was first mentioned,

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and the technical problems that had to be
overcome in order to achieve it —

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it's just monumental
to be able to get a spacecraft

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this close to the Sun.

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To get close to the Sun

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is not easy.

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It looks like from Earth to the Sun
is not that far,

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uh, the key issue is energy.

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In order for Parker to get close to
the Sun, 

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we needed to lose lots of Parker’s
speed

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possessed at earth’s orbit. 

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Fortunately, I was able to create a

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trajectory with seven Venus flyby. 

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The mission uses Venus

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in order to actually change
its angular momentum

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and slow down to actually go
closer and closer to the Sun.

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Over the course of about six years
and seven flybys,

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we were able to move closer to the Sun,
and each time unraveling a little bit

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more of the mysteries of the Sun
as we get data from places

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that no spacecraft has ever been before.

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It's the only star in our galaxy
that we can actually go visit,

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and that's what makes it so magical.

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By flying within the
atmosphere of a star,

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we are basically tracing the fingerprints

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of the physical mechanisms of the Sun.

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We now view the Sun in a different way.

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When you look at images from
Parker Solar Probe

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they are extremely, extremely complex.

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And that complexity for us,
it’s a new science

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that we need to investigate.
We need to understand.

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The things that we’ve learned over 
the years that Parker’s been in orbit  

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have been amazing. They’ve challenged
our ideas about

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how the solar wind is made,

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about how the Sun works, 

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about some of these fundamental things
that are going on. 

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There's a lot of pride and excitement

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for this closest approach.

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So much effort

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and so many people have worked on this.

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I think it really took the teamwork
and synergy of engineers and scientists

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and administrators and, and a lot of
different people to think this mission up.

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It makes you think

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that you can basically
overcome any hurdles,

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so dream big and go out there and
make them happen.