[CNN]On 'mission to touch the sun,' Parker Solar Probe has launched
Full story:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/10/u...asa/index.html

(CNN)Humanity's first visit to a star began this weekend. NASA's Parker
Solar Probe will explore the sun's atmosphere in a mission that launched
early Sunday. This is the agency's first mission to the sun and its
outermost atmosphere, the corona.

After being delayed on Saturday, the probe successfully launched at 3:31
a.m. ET Sunday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a United Launch Alliance
Delta IV Heavy rocket, one of the world's most powerful rockets.

Although the probe itself is about the size of a car, a powerful rocket
is needed to escape Earth's orbit, change direction and reach the sun.
The launch window was chosen because the probe will rely on Venus to
help it achieve an orbit around the sun.

Six weeks after launch, the probe will encounter Venus' gravity for the
first time. It will be used to help slow the probe, like pulling on a
handbrake, and orient the probe so it's on a path to the sun.

"The launch energy to reach the Sun is 55 times that required to get to
Mars, and two times that needed to get to Pluto," Yanping Guo of the
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, who designed the mission
trajectory, said in a statement. "During summer, Earth and the other
planets in our solar system are in the most favorable alignment to allow
us to get close to the Sun."

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