Parker Solar Probe Successfully Completes Pre-Environmental Testing Review

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, the first mission to fly into the Sun’s corona, has successfully completed a review that approves the beginning of the spacecraft’s environmental testing.

Swing Time: Parker Solar Probe Passes Magnetic Swing Test

As NASA's Parker Solar Probe continues through its careful construction process, the spacecraft – built for NASA by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland – is approaching the final stages and running through a battery of tests to ensure it will be ready for its groundbreaking mission to the Sun next summer.

Parker Solar Probe Uses An Improved “Reality” for Building Spacecraft

New augmented reality technology developed by NASA allows the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft team to explore, rehearse, and perfect their fabrication and integration procedures—all in an immersive digital environment.

Eugene Parker Meets Parker Solar Probe

On Tuesday, October 3, 2017, Eugene N. Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, visited the spacecraft that bears his name: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. This is the first NASA mission that has been named for a living researcher, and is humanity’s first mission to the Sun.

Thermal Protection System Installed for Testing

On Sept. 21, 2017, engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, lowered the thermal protection system – the heat shield – onto the spacecraft for a test of alignment as part of integration and testing.

Facebook Live from the Parker Solar Probe Clean Room: Video

Rewatch the Facebook Live as NASA took us on a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming Parker Solar Probe! Come inside the clean room at Johns Hopkins APL and learn more about this historic mission, the revolutionary spacecraft, and the people who are making it possible https://www.facebook.com/NAS

Final Rocket Components Arrive in Florida for Parker Solar Probe

All components of the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket that will launch NASA’s Parker Solar Probe have arrived for prelaunch processing at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

From NASA: Delta IV Heavy Booster Cores Arrive for Parker Solar Probe

Launch preparations are beginning to get off the ground for NASA’s upcoming Parker Solar Probe mission, scheduled to lift off in summer 2018 atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket.

Cool Power

As NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft begins its first historic encounter with the sun’s corona in late 2018—flying closer to our star than any other mission in history—a revolutionary cooling system will keep its solar arrays at peak performance, even in extremely hostile conditions.Every instrument and system on board Parker Solar Probe (with the exception of four antennas and a special particle detector) will be hidden from the sun behind a breakthrough thermal protection system (TPS)—an eight-foot diameter shield that the spacecraft uses to defend itself against the intense heat and energy of our star.

NASA Renames Solar Probe Mission to Honor Pioneering Physicist Eugene Parker

CHICAGO – NASA has renamed the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft – humanity’s first mission to a star, which will launch in 2018 – as the Parker Solar Probe in honor of astrophysicist Eugene Parker.

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