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NASA to Make Announcement About First Mission to Touch Sun

Solar Probe Plus spacecraft leaving Earth
This illustrations depicts the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft leaving Earth, after separating from its launch vehicle and booster rocket, bound for the inner solar system and an unprecedented study of the Sun. Credits: JHU/APL

NASA will make an announcement about the agency’s first mission to fly directly into our sun’s atmosphere during an event at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, May 31, from the University of Chicago’s William Eckhardt Research Center Auditorium. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

The mission, Solar Probe Plus, is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2018. Placed in orbit within four million miles of the sun’s surface, and facing heat and radiation unlike any spacecraft in history, the spacecraft will explore the sun’s outer atmosphere and make critical observations that will answer decades-old questions about the physics of how stars work. The resulting data will improve forecasts of major space weather events that impact life on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space.

Participants include:

  • Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington
  • Nicola Fox, mission project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland
  • Eugene Parker, S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago
  • Eric Isaacs, executive vice president for research, innovation and national laboratories at the University of Chicago
  • Rocky Kolb, dean of the Division of the Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago

For more information on the mission and agency solar-related activities, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/sun

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Dwayne Brown / Karen Fox
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 301-286-6284
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / karen.c.fox@nasa.gov 
Michael Buckley / Geoff Brown
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
240-228-7536 / 240-460-2505
michael.buckley@jhuapl.edu / geoffrey.brown@jhuapl.edu
Mark Peters
University of Chicago
773-702-8356
petersm@uchicago.edu