WASHINGTON- NASA’s Parker Solar Probe – humanity’s first mission to the Sun- is undergoing final preparations for its launch scheduled for July 31.
The spacecraft was flown by the US Air Force to Florida, where it willcontinue testing, and eventually undergo final assembly and mating to thethird stage of the Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle.
Parker Solar Probe is humanity’s first mission to the Sun. After launch, itwill orbit directly through the solar atmosphere – the corona – closer tothe surface than any human-made object has ever gone.
While facing brutal heat and radiation, the mission will reveal fundamentalscience behind what drives the solar wind, the constant outpouring ofmaterial from the Sun that shapes planetary atmospheres and affects spaceweather near Earth.
For the next several months, the spacecraft will undergo comprehensivetesting. Just prior to being fuelled, one of the most critical elements ofthe spacecraft, the thermal protection system (TPS), or heat shield, willbe installed.
The TPS is the breakthrough technology that will allow Parker Solar Probeto survive the temperatures in the Sun’s corona, just 9.8 millionkilometres from the surface of our star.
“There are many milestones to come for Parker Solar Probe and the amazingteam of men and women who have worked so diligently to make this mission areality,” said Andy Driesman, Parker Solar Probe project manager from theJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in the US.