Parker Solar Probe

[Orionid]

Mobile Service Tower Rolled Back at Space Launch Complex 37
Anna Heiney Posted on August 10, 2018



On Friday, Aug. 10, 2018, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket stands ready to boost NASA’s Parker Solar Probe on a mission to study the Sun following rollback of the mobile service tower at Space Launch Complex 37. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/08/10/mobile-service-tower-rolled-back-at-space-launch-complex-37/

[Orionid]

Nowy czas startu 09:53 CEST

New Target Launch Time
Anna Heiney Posted on August 11, 2018



The launch team is targeting 3:53 a.m. EDT for liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. The countdown is in progress at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/08/11/new-target-launch-time/

[Orionid]

O 9:00 początek transmisji ze startu

[Orionid]

Parker Solar Probe: The Science of 'Touching the Sun'
By Paul Scott Anderson, on August 7th, 2018


Parker Solar Probe sits in a clean room on July 6, 2018, at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida, after the installation of its heat shield. Photo Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

(...) Speaking of science objectives, what are the main science goals for the PSP mission? Overall, they include:

- Trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar corona and solar wind.

- Determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic fields at the sources of the solar wind.

- Explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles.

PSP will actually penetrate the corona (which you can see during total solar eclipses), taking many different kinds of measurements with four instrument suites, producing images to help revolutionize scientists’ understanding of how the Sun, and therefore other stars as well, behave. Never before has any spacecraft ever come so close to the Sun, but it is necessary for PSP to be able to take the needed measurements. But why do scientists want to study the Sun anyway? There are many good reasons:

- The Sun is the only star we can study up close. By studying this star we live with, we learn more about stars throughout the Universe.

- The Sun is a source of light and heat for life on Earth. The more we know about it, the more we can understand how life on Earth developed.

- The Sun also affects Earth in less familiar ways. It is the source of the solar wind; a flow of ionized gases from the Sun that streams past Earth at speeds of more than 500 km per second (a million miles per hour).

- Disturbances in the solar wind shake Earth’s magnetic field and pump energy into the radiation belts, part of a set of changes in near-Earth space known as space weather.

- Space weather can change the orbits of satellites, shorten their lifetimes, or interfere with onboard electronics. The more we learn about what causes space weather – and how to predict it – the more we can protect the satellites we depend on.

- The solar wind also fills up much of the Solar System, dominating the space environment far past Earth. As we send spacecraft and astronauts further and further from home, we must understand this space environment just as early seafarers needed to understand the ocean.

(...)
http://www.americaspace.com/2018/08/07/parker-solar-probe-the-science-of-touching-the-sun/

[Orionid]

Parker Solar Probe Cleared For Launch to the Sun Saturday at 3:33am EDT
By Mike Killian, on August 9th, 2018


Illustration of the orbit of PSP around the Sun. PSP will swoop through the Sun’s “atmosphere” (corona) 24 times over a period of 7 years. Image Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

(...) But PSP only has until August 23 to launch, otherwise it will miss the planet Venus, whose gravity the spacecraft will need to “steer” itself into the proper orbits of the sun for the mission’s science objectives, getting closer and closer with each orbit. The next window of opportunity isn’t until May 2019, when Venus is in position again to give PSP the gravity-assists it needs to reach the brutally hostile corona and sample the sun’s atmosphere.

It’s a small spacecraft in one of the most powerful rockets in the world, because it requires such an extremely high energy launch; 55 times more energy than reaching Mars actually. Even the Delta-IV Heavy can’t do that alone, so the spacecraft will employ a third rocket stage, a Star 48BV from Northrop Grumman, to gain the incredible speed it needs to reach the sun. (...)

http://www.americaspace.com/2018/08/09/parker-solar-probe-cleared-for-launch-to-the-sun-saturday-at-333am-edt/

[Orionid]

Workhorse Rocket to Carry NASA’s Parker Solar Probe
Linda Herridge Posted on August 11, 2018



The rocket standing on the pad at Space Launch Complex 37 is a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy configuration. The 233-foot-tall rocket is the world’s second highest-capacity rocket and most powerful rocket currently used by NASA. The launch vehicle consists of three Common Booster Cores, each with an RS-68A engine. Each engine produces 702,000 pounds of thrust for a combined total liftoff thrust of more than 2.1 million pounds.

A cryogenic second stage, powered by an RL10 engine, is on the center core. It is fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The boosters are controlled by the second stage avionics system, which provides guidance, flight control and vehicle sequencing functions during the booster phases of flight.

For the first time ever, a solid fuel third stage, provided by Northrup Grumman, is part of the Delta IV Heavy rocket’s configuration. It is attached to the Parker Solar Probe and will help boost the spacecraft into the proper trajectory for its mission. (...)

https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2018/08/11/workhorse-rocket-to-carry-nasas-parker-solar-probe/

[Limax7]

 :-*Już za parę minut start. W ciemności (3:53 czasu lokalnego)... Powodzenia

[Orionid]

Photos: Delta 4-Heavy revealed for solar probe launch
August 11, 2018 Stephen Clark




Credit: Alex Polimeni/Spaceflight Now

https://spaceflightnow.com/2018/08/11/photos-delta-4-heavy-revealed-for-solar-probe-launch/

[Limax7]

No go

[Limax7]

Okienko startowe jest chyba do 10:38 naszego czasu ?

[mss]

T-4min hold, okienko startowe do 10:38 dziś, jeśli nie wznowią do 10:34 to scrub !

[Limax7]

Co to za płomień w lewym rogu kadru ?

[kanarkusmaximus]

Może się jeszcze uda!

[kanarkusmaximus]

Jeszcze spróbują przed końcem okienka startowego!

[mss]

Nowy czas startu: 10:28 na 10 minut przed końcem okienka na dzisiaj.