NASA Parker Solar Mission: World's first attempt to touch the Sun to launch on August 11

New Delhi : NASA is all set to launch its Parker Solar Probe to touch the scorching sun in coming weeks. The car-sized spacecraft has been moved to its launch pad and is on schedule take off next week, the US space agencies said.

The spacecraft will travel directly into the Sun's atmosphere, about four million miles from its surface and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has done before. The credit goes to its  innovative Thermal Protection System.

World’s first solar mission, targeted to launch on August 11, will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it travels through the Sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona.

It will depend on measurements and imaging to transfigure our understanding of the corona and how processes there eventually affect near-Earth space.

The probe was shifted on July 30 to Space the Launch Complex 37 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The next day, the spacecraft was lifted and attached to its launch vehicle, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket in the Vertical Integration Facility.

The Parker Solar Probe carries a series of instruments to study the Sun, directly or from far-end. The data gathered from these instruments would help scientists answer three foundational questions about our star.

Parker Solar Probe has been a dream of scientists for decades, but only recently has the needed technology like the heat shield, solar array cooling system, and fault management system has been prepared to make such a mission a reality.

Parker Solar Probe will explore the corona, a region of the Sun only seen from Earth when the Moon blocks out the Sun's bright face during total solar eclipses.

The corona will answers to many unexplored questions about the Sun's activity and processes.