Jane Edwards
A NASA spacecraft designed to gather information about the sun is scheduled to take off no earlier than Aug. 4 aboard the United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The Parker Solar Probe will determine how heat and energy move through the sun’s atmosphere by flying directly into the star’s corona as well as identify factors that affect the acceleration of solar energetic particles and solar wind, NASA said Tuesday.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland manages the solar probe for the science mission directorate as part of the Living with a Star program, while the agency’s Launch Services Program oversees launch service acquisition, management, analysis and integration work in support of the mission.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory offers mission design and management support for NASA, while Northrop Grumman will provide the third stage for the rocket.
