NASA’s first ever mission to the Sun

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced to schedule the launch of Parker Solar Probe in August.

The spacecraft will fly directly into the sun’s atmosphere from a distance of about 4 miles from its surface, within the orbit of Mercury. It is the first ever mission to the Sun, and it will be facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before.

The probe is named after Eugene Parker, an American solar astrophysicist who postulated a theory that high speed matter and magnetism constantly escaped the Sun and it affected the planets and space throughout our solar system.

The Parker Solar Probe will study the Sun closer than any other man-made object before. According to NASA, the spacecraft will observe how energy and heat move through the Sun’s atmosphere and Solar wind variations. Their changing conditions and variations can affect the Earth and other planets too.

The Parker Solar Probe is set to take off on August 6. The United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, is the provider of the Delta IV launch service for the Probe.