12 2018 parker solar probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space weather events that impact life on earth.
Parker solar probe pictures of the sun.
Nasa s parker solar probe will be the first ever mission to touch the sun.
See images of nasa s parker solar probe mission which the agency plans to launch in july 2018.
The spacecraft will get seven times closer to the sun than any probe ever has.
It will approach to within 9 86 solar radii 6 9 million km or 4 3 million miles from the center of the sun and by 2025 will travel at closest approach as fast as 690 000 km h.
Nasa s parker solar probe launched a year ago on a mission to touch the sun.
Previously solar probe solar probe plus or solar probe is a nasa robotic spacecraft launched in 2018 with the mission of making observations of the outer corona of the sun.
Since that fiery early morning liftoff with the mission s namesake eugene parker in attendance the probe has made.
Parker solar probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the sun s surface facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it.
In 2018 the parker solar probe was still under construction in a clean room near kennedy space center.