Ready for liftoff! The Parker #SolarProbe, our mission to touch the Sun, will have its first opportunity to lift off on Saturday, Aug. 11, at 3:33 a.m. EDT. Launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, Parker Solar Probe will make its journey all the way to the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona — closer to the Sun than any spacecraft in history. Nestled atop a United Launch Alliance (ulalaunch) Delta IV Heavy — one of the world’s most powerful rockets — with a third stage added, Parker will blast off toward the Sun with a whopping 55 times more energy than is required to reach Mars. About the size of a small car, it weighs a mere 1,400 pounds. Zooming through space in a highly elliptical orbit, the probe will reach speeds up to 430,000 miles per hour — fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in a second — setting the record for the fastest spacecraft in history. During its nominal mission lifetime of just under 7 years, Parker Solar Probe will complete 24 o...