Last Delta II to Live On at Lasting Home at Famous Kennedy Space Center Rocket Garden

The final United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II rocket that launched NASA’s ICESat-2 mission stands poised for liftoff from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on Sept 15, 2018. The same configuration with four strap-on solid rocket booster will be displayed in the lineup at the famous Rocket Garden at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.  Credit: United Launch Alliance

Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   20 September 2018

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –  Rocket maker United Launch Alliance (ULA) say the legacy of the venerable Delta II rocket will live on at the world famous Rocket Garden – having been selected as the permanent home of the last of the venerable Delta II rockets.  Leftover components will be assembled and put on display in the “lineup of historic rockets” for all to gaze at in wonder at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

The ULA announcement came shortly after the last launch of the workhorse Delta II earlier this month carrying NASA’s ICESat-2 on Sept. 15 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

“Good by Delta II. Our last bird will live at the @NASA @ExploreSpaceKSC Visitor Complex. #DeltaII,” tweeted Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO.

“Just because we recently watched a Delta II  lift off for the last time doesn’t mean we have to say goodbye,” Bruno explained in a video released after the last launch. “We have one more mighty Delta II rocket. I’m excited to announce that the final Delta II rocket will soon take its place in the lineup of historic rockets located in the Rocket Garden at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.”

World famous Rocket Garden at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida on 60^th anniversary of NASA’s founding Oct. 1 - prior to upcoming addition of last Delta II to lineup to live on forever, as renovation of the last existing NASA Saturn 1B is a work in progress.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

The $1 Billion ICESat-2 probe lifted off atop the venerable United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta II’s on its 155^th and final launch at 9:02 a.m. EDT Saturday, September 15, 2018. 

“The Delta II rocket has been a venerable workhorse for NASA and civilian scientists, the U.S. military, and commercial clients throughout its almost 30 years of service,” said Tory Bruno, ULA president and CEO, in a statement.

“This program comes to a close with the final launch of NASA’s ICESat-2, but its legacy will continue and the Visitor Complex will help us keep the story of the success of this much-revered rocket in the hearts and minds of the public.”

Bruno went on to say it would be displayed “soon” and “upright” and in the “7420-10” configuration – the same as for ICESat-2. 

The Delta II 7420-10 configuration rocket includes a 10-foot-diameter payload fairing (PLF) and four strap-on solid rocket boosters and stands 132 feet tall (40 meters tall). 

World famous Rocket Garden at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.  Credit: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

The Visitor Complex is of course thrilled.

"We are honored to have the Delta II join our historic lineup of rockets in our Rocket Garden," said Therrin Protze, chief operating officer of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

“We are excited to welcome the ULA #DeltaII rocket to our Rocket Garden! Welcome Delta II and thank you @ULALaunch and @ToryBruno!” tweeted the visitor center. 

“The maiden Delta II took flight on Valentine's Day in 1989, successfully delivering the first operational GPS satellite into space,” noted ULA. 

“Since that first launch, Delta II rockets have launched 154 successful missions. Its resume includes several trips to Mars as well as the planet-hunting Kepler, the twin lunar-orbiting GRAIL spacecraft, 48 GPS satellites and numerous commercial imaging and communications satellites.”

The Delta family of rockets are storied in American Space History and truly harkens back to the Dawn of the Space Age by launching research probes that’s contributed so much to human knowledge and others like the Global Positioning Satellites (GPS), weather and communications satellites that benefit virtually every human on Earth every moment of every day and military satellites that make vital contributions to US National Defense.

Among the NASA science missions launched are the famous twin Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, Pathfinder, Dawn Asteroid Orbiter, MESSENGER Mercury Orbiter, Mars Phoenix, Mars Odyssey, Mars Global Surveryor, Deep Impact, Spitzer Space Telescope, Kepler, NEAR, STEREO, WMAP and many many more. 

Blastoff of United Launch Alliance Delta II Heavy rocket and twin NASA GRAIL lunar spacecraft on Sept. 10, 2011 from Space Launch Complex-17 (SLC-17)  at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL at 9:08 a.m. EDT. View from Press Site 1. Last Delta II launch from the Cape.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

The last Delta II launch from Florida took place in Sept 2011 from Space Launch Complex-17 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and delivered NASA’s twin LADEE lunar probes to the Moon – attended by this author.

Blastoff of United Launch Alliance Delta II Heavy rocket and twin NASA GRAIL lunar spacecraft on Sept. 10, 2011 from Space Launch Complex-17 (SLC-17)  at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL at 9:08 a.m. EDT. View from Press Site 1. Last Delta II launch from the Cape.  Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

Space Launch Complex 17 was sadly demolished earlier this year – as I witnessed and reported - http://kenkremer.blogspot.com/2018/07/dual-launch-towers-at-cape-canaveral.html

Thus its wonderful to learn that the Delta II will live on forever at KSCVC !

Last ‘Up Close’ historic photos taken of Space Launch Complex-17 (SLC-17) on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL on July 7 ahead of planned demolition of historic pads 17A and 17B slated for July 12, 2018. First launches from both pads occurred in 1957. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

Explosive demolition of the two launch towers and gantries comprising historic Space Launch Complex-17 (SLC-17) on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.  Historic pads 17A and 17B were destroyed at 7 a.m. EDT July 12, 2018. First launches from both pads occurred in 1957. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman (Orbital ATK) and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com

Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area.
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Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events

ULA Selects Bezos Blue Origin Engine for New Vulcan Rocket

Artist’s concept of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket powered by Blue Origin BE-4 booster engine launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL. Credit: ULA

Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   27 September 2018

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –   Following several years of work and intense speculation rocket builder United launch Alliance (ULA) has at least made the highly anticipated selection chosen the Blue Origin BE-4 engine under development by billionaire Jeff Bezos Blue Origin to power the first stage of their next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket that could fly it maiden mission as soon as 2020.

“ULA selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine to power the booster of our next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket,” the company announced in a statement Thursday, Sept. 27.

The highly anticipated selection was long expected in the competitive procurement with the AR-1 engine under development by Aerojet-Rocketdyne which was first announced in 2014 by Bezos and ULA CEO Tory Bruno.

"Big win for @BlueOrigin today!" Bezos tweeted. "And a big thank you to @ulalaunch for choosing our BE-4 engine. Excited to be a part of Vulcan's mission to space."

United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) next-generation rocket - the American-made Vulcan Centaur - is making strong progress in development and is on track for its initial flight in mid-2020.

Vulcan builds on the heritage of and will replace ULA’s existing Atlas and Delta families of rockets which trace their origins to the dawn of the Space Age.

“Vulcan Centaur will revolutionize spaceflight and provide affordable, reliable access to space for our current and future customers,” said Tory Bruno, ULA’s president and CEO, in a statement. 

“We are well on our way to the introduction of Vulcan Centaur – the future of U.S. rocket manufacturing. With state-of-the-art engineering and manufacturing techniques, this rocket is designed specifically for low recurring cost.”


The first stage will be powered by a pair of liquid oxygen (LOX) / liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueled BE-4 engines which generate 550,000 pounds of sea level thrust apiece.  

With the addition of up to six first stage solid rocket motors, the most powerful version of Vulcan will achieve a liftoff thrust of 3.8 million pounds.

Schematic of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. Credit: ULA

ULA previously has selected Aerojet Rocketdyne’s RL10 engine for the Centaur upper stage, Northrop Grumman solid rocket boosters, L‑3 Avionics Systems avionics, and RUAG’s payload fairings and composite structures for the new Vulcan Centaur rocket system.

Vulcan has also completed critical rocket reviews. 

“The new rocket design is nearing completion, and the booster preliminary design and critical design reviews have been completed. Vulcan Centaur will have a maximum liftoff thrust of 3.8 million pounds and carry 56,000 pounds to low Earth orbit, 33,000 pounds to a geo-transfer orbit and 16,000 pounds to geostationary orbit with greater capability than any currently available single-core launch vehicle.” 

“We are very glad to have our BE-4 engine selected by United Launch Alliance. United Launch Alliance is the premier launch service provider for national security missions, and we’re thrilled to be part of their team and that mission,” said Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith. 

We can’t thank Tory Bruno and the entire United Launch Alliance team enough for entrusting our engine to powering the Vulcan rocket’s first stage.”

By selecting the BE-4 for their new rocket, ULA will also eventually end its dependence on the Russian made RD-180 engines currently powering their Atlas V - used to launch NASA, military, national security and commercial satellites.

The Atlas V will continue to be launched into the early 2020s and is slated to launch NASA astronauts soon to the ISS aboard the Boeing CST-100 commercial crew capsule.  

But to quality for lucrative military contracts like their current Atlas and Delta rockets, the new Vulcan will have to be certified by the Air Force and NASA

“Our new rocket will be superior in reliability, cost and capability – one system for all missions,” said Bruno. “We have been working closely with the U.S. Air Force, and our certification plan is in place.”

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the Air Force Space Command AFSPC-11 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex-41 on April 14, 2018 at 7:13 p.m. EDT on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.  Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com

Vulcan is being developed to slash launch costs in a drive to match the competition from Elon Musk’s SpaceX which has gobbled up numerous launch contracts. 

Indeed the very survival of ULA in a world of ever increasing rocket competition depend on the successful introduction of Vulcan Centaur as soon as possible. 

Blue Origin is also developing and building the BE-4 engines for their own new rocket named ‘New Glenn’ - which will be reusable and launch from complex 36 at the Cape. 

Watch this Blue Origin video of a BE-4 engine test:

Video Caption: Blue Origin BE-4 Engine Compilation. The BE-4 uses oxygen-rich staged combustion of liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas to produce 550,000 lbs. of thrust. Liquefied natural gas is commercially available, affordable, and highly efficient for spaceflight. Unlike other rocket fuels, such as kerosene, liquefied natural gas can be used to pressurize a rocket’s propellant tanks. This is called autogenous pressurization and eliminates the need for costly and complex pressurization systems, like helium. Liquefied natural gas also leaves no soot byproducts as kerosene does, simplifying engine reuse.

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com

Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area.

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Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events

ULA Delta IV Heavy launch of NASA's Parker Solar Probe in Aug. 2018. Credit: Ken Kremer/SpaceUpClose.com/kenkremer.com

Silent 100 Days NASA’s Opportunity Rover Emerges from Martian Dust Storm: Orbital Photo

NASA's Opportunity rover appears as a blip in the center of this square. This image taken on Sept. 20, 2018 by HiRISE, a high-resolution camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows the dust storm over Perseverance Valley has substantially cleared. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona 

Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   25 September 2018

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL –   Still silent after 100 days, NASA’s long-lived Opportunity rover has emerged as a tiny blip in a new view taken from orbit as the global Martian dust storm that encircled the Red Planet and cut off all communications with Earth since June, gradually subsides.  The view has clarified just enough for the golf cart sized robot to at last be seen again. 

The question is and remains- Has She Survived ? - to tell the tale of her harrowing ordeal under the thick dust swirls causing no power generation from her life giving solar arrays to recharge the batteries and thereby virtually no heat to keep her fragile electronics and computer chips from cracking under the constant stress of the unending and deadly frigid Antartic-like temperature climate for more than 3 months!

“NASA still hasn't heard from the Opportunity rover, but at least we can see it again,” officials said in a status update statement released today, Sept. 25. 

“There is no signal from Opportunity,” NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green told me in a recent interview. 

Today NASA just released a new but fuzzy picture of the 14-year old Opportunity taken just days ago by the high-resolution camera HiRISE camera onboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 

The HiRISE image, shown as the lead image above, was captured from Mars orbit on Sept. 20, 2018 from an altitude of about 166 miles (267 kilometers) above the Martian surface. The white box marks a 154-foot-wide (47-meter-wide) area centered on the rover which is barely noticeable as a small whitish splotch against the dark red contours of the Red Planet.

When the massive planet-encircling dust storm hit Opportunity had been descending down and exploring Perseverance Valley located along the eroded western rim of the gigantic 22-km diameter (14 mi) impact crater named Endeavour. 

“A new image produced by HiRISE, a high-resolution camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), shows a small object on the slopes of the Red Planet's Perseverance Valley. That object is Opportunity, which was descending into the Martian valley when a dust storm swept over the region a little more than 100 days ago.”

This pre-dust storm panoramic mosaic view was one of the last ones taken by NASA’s Opportunity rover and shows the spectacular view from her approximate current position as of June 2018 after traveling halfway down the fluid carved slope of Perseverance Valley - while peeing into the interior of vast Endeavour Crater.  This navcam camera photo mosaic was assembled by Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo from raw images taken on Sol 5074  (3 May 2018) and colorized. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/Marco Di Lorenzo

To get a clear idea of exactly what her location looks like from the Martian surface see herein our exclusive Opportunity rover mosaics showing the view from Perseverance Valley, as well as our route map – created by the imaging team of Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo.   

The last signal – and sign of life - from Opportunity was received on June 10.  The team listens regularly every day, hoping the six wheeled robot will wake up. But its unlikely until the dust choked skies clear up sufficiently to power up the sleeping systems.

Now that the dust is subsiding, the team led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has ramped up efforts to contact the robot.

“On Sept. 11, JPL began increasing the frequency of commands it beams to the 14-year-old rover’ said NASA.

“The tau -- a measurement of how much sunlight reaches the surface -- over Opportunity was estimated to be a little higher than 10 during some points during the dust storm. The tau has steadily fallen in the last several months. On Thursday, Sept. 20, when this image was taken, tau was estimated to be about 1.3 by MRO's Mars Color Imager camera.”

Watch this GIF showing the 6 wheeled rover emerge from the dust this past week. 

The long lived robot was launched in 2003, landed in 2004 and has been making breakthrough science and exploration discoveries regarding flowing liquid water and habitable environments potentially conducive to life on Mars ever since during its utterly remarkable 14.5-year-long overland trek across the 4th planet from the sun.

By June 10 the dust storm grew so enormously that it covered more than 15.8 million square miles (41 million square kilometers) – about the area of North America and Russia combined.  

It blocked out so much sunlight that it effectively turned day into night for Opportunity, which is located near the center of the storm, inside Mars' Perseverance Valley.

Because the solar powered Opportunity rover charges her batteries, instruments and heaters via sunlight impinging on her solar arrays, No sunlight means no production of electrical power to run her systems and subsystems.

Although Opportunity was only warrantied for “90 Sols” of operation, it was enjoying its 15^th year of continuous operations on the frigid alien world – until the dust storm!.

Opportunity rover looks south from the top of Perseverance Valley along the rim of Endeavour Crater on Mars in this partial self portrait including the rover deck and solar panels. Perseverance Valley descends from the right and terminates down near the crater floor. This navcam camera photo mosaic was assembled from raw images taken on Sol 4736 (20 May 2017) and colorized. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

“Perseverance Valley” is an ancient fluid-carved valley “possibly water-cut” that could hold groundbreaking clues to the potential origin and evolution of life on Mars – if it ever existed.

As of today September 25, 2018, long lived Opportunity has survived or experienced over 5217 Sols (or Martian days) roving the harsh environment of the Red Planet.

Opportunity has taken over 228,771 images and traversed over 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers) - more than a marathon.  

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com 

Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area. 

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Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events

14 Year Traverse Map for NASA’s Opportunity rover from 2004 to 2018. This map shows the entire 45 kilometer (28 mi) path the rover has driven on the Red Planet during over 14.5 Earth years (7.5 Mars years) and more than a marathon runners distance for over 5217 Sols, or Martian days, since landing inside Eagle Crater on Jan 24, 2004 – to current location at Perseverance Valley at the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover reached Perseverance Valley in May 2017 and descended about halfway by June 2018.  Its likely a water carved Martian gully. Opportunity surpassed Marathon distance on Sol 3968 after reaching 11th Martian anniversary on Sol 3911. Opportunity discovered clay minerals at Esperance – indicative of a habitable zone – and searched for more at Marathon Valley. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/ASU/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Captures 'First Light' Images

These are the first images from WISPR, short for the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe taken on Sept. 9, 2018. Researchers studied the images to determine the instrument was pointed as expected, using celestial landmarks as their guide. The left image shows the Milky Way, looking at the galactic center. In the right image, there is a distinctive cluster of four stars near the right edge that is in the constellation Scorpius. The planet Jupiter is also visible in the right image as the bright object slightly right of center. The Sun, not visible in the image, is far off to the right of the image’s right edge.  Credits: NASA/Naval Research Laboratory/Parker Solar Probe

Ken Kremer  --   SpaceUpClose.com  --   24 September 2018

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL –  Just a month after blastoff from the Florida Space Coast, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has captured ‘First Light’ images from all four of its science instruments - including stunning views of the Milky Way  – confirming that they are all functioning well on humanity’s first mission to ‘Touch the Sun.’

As of today Parker is more than 26 million miles (41 million km) from Earth. 

Parker Solar Probe Mission Trajectory and Current Position.  Credit: NASA/APL/Parker Solar Probe

“We will be working 24/7 to get the instruments ready and commissioned in time for the 1^st Venus flyby and 1^st solar perihelion” set for November 5, 2018, said Nicki Fox, now director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division in a post launch interview with Space UpClose at the Kennedy Space Center.  Fox served previously as Parker project scientist at APL. 

The calibration and checkout data demonstrate that “each of the instruments is working well” says NASA.

For example, the lead image above was captured by the WISPR instrument, short for the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe, on Sept. 9, 2018.

The left side of the beautiful image shows the Milky Way looking at the galactic center from WISPR’s outer telescope.  It has a 58-degree field of view and extends to about 160 degrees from the Sun. 

Jupiter is visible near the center of the right side image from WISPR’s inner telescope.  It has a 40-degree field of view and extends 58.5 degrees from the Sun’s center on the right side edge. 

There is a parallax of about 13 degrees in the apparent position of the Sun as viewed from Earth and from Parker Solar Probe.

"All instruments returned data that not only serves for calibration, but also captures glimpses of what we expect them to measure near the Sun to solve the mysteries of the solar atmosphere, the corona,” said Nour Raouafi, Parker Solar Probe project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, in a statement.

First Light imagery from ISʘIS instrument that measures high-energy particles associated solar activity like flares and coronal mass ejections.  ISʘIS’ two Energetic Particle Instruments cover a range of energies for these activity-driven particles: EPI-Lo focuses on the lower end of the energy spectrum, while EPI-Hi measures the more energetic particles. Credit: NASA/Princeton University/Parker Solar Probe

“The instruments work in tandem to measure the Sun’s electric and magnetic fields, particles from the Sun and the solar wind, and capture images of the environment around the spacecraft.”

Here’s a description of WISPR from Russ Howard, principal investigator from the Naval Research Laboratory. He studied the images to determine the instrument was pointing as expected, using celestial landmarks as a guide.

“There is a very distinctive cluster of stars on the overlap of the two images. The brightest is the star Antares-alpha, which is in the constellation Scorpius and is about 90 degrees from the Sun,” said Howard.

The Sun, not visible in the image, is far off to the right of the image’s right edge. The planet Jupiter is visible in the image captured by WISPR’s inner telescope — it’s the bright object slightly right of center in the right-hand panel of the image.

“The left side of the photo shows a beautiful image of the Milky Way, looking at the galactic center,” said Howard.

The exposure time – i.e. the length of time that light was gathered for this image, an interval which can be shortened or lengthened to make the image darker or brighter – is on the lower end, and there’s a reason: “We intentionally wanted to be on the low side in case there was something very bright when we first turned on, but it is primarily because we are looking so far from the Sun,” explains Howard.

As the spacecraft approaches the Sun, its orientation will change, and so will WISPR’s images. With each solar orbit, WISPR will capture images of the structures flowing out from the corona. While measurements have been made before by other instruments at a distance of 1 AU – or approximately 93 million miles – WISPR will get much closer, about 95% of the way to the Sun from Earth, dramatically increasing the ability to see what’s occurring in that region with a much finer scale than ever before and providing a more pristine picture of the solar corona.

The FIELDS instrument suite aboard Parker Solar Probe captures the scale and shape of electric and magnetic fields in the Sun’s atmosphere. This plot was updated on Sept. 21, 2018, to better illustrate the comparison between Parker Solar Probe’s data (center and bottom) and the data from the Wind mission (top). Both versions are available from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.   Credit: NASA/UC Berkeley/Parker Solar Probe/Wind

NASA’s daring Parker Solar Probe mission will fly at never before attained speeds through the hellish atmosphere of our Sun’s corona for the first time in human history.

Parker will travel at unprecedented speeds of up to 430,000 MPH, some 700,000 kph as at swings by the sun 24 times over the next 7 years via orbits shaped by 7 flybys of Venus.  

The team must work expeditiously because the first Venus flyby will take place on Oct. 3, 2018, at 4:44 a.m. EDT and the first perihelion flyby of the Sun on Nov. 5, 2018, at 10:27 p.m. EST (Nov. 6, 2018, at 03:27 UTC).

“The spacecraft will use Venus to slightly slow itself and adjust its trajectory for an optimal path toward first perihelion of the Sun on Nov. 5, 2018.” 

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket launches NASA's Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun and dive into the corona, Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018, at 3:31 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. From camera at pad. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

The mission began with a dazzling middle-of-the-night blastoff of the mighty Delta IV Heavy rocket in the wee hours of Sunday morning, Aug. 12 – and delivered the car sized spacecraft to its intended trajectory towards Venus and the Sun. 

Streaking to the Sun!! NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe is on its way to ‘Touch the Sun’ for the first time in November 2018 in this long duration streak shot taken after 3:31 AM EDT blastoff Aug. 12, 2018 from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The probe is healthy and power positive after delivery to space by United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

The 23-story tall triple barreled United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket successfully launched at 3:31 a.m. EDT Aug. 12 from the Florida Space Coast and put on a brilliant display of fire power with 2.1 million pounds of thrust spewing forth from the trio of liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen RS-68A main engines that quickly turned night into day a few hours before Sundays natural sunrise under nearly cloud-free skies.

Check out our Space UpClose gallery of photos and videos. Plus my BBC TV World News prelaunch interview. 

Here’s my Parker launch video from a remote camera set at pad 37:

Video Caption: Launch of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe on United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket on Aug. 12, 2018, at 3:31 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on humanity’s 1^st mission to our sun that will fly through the sun’s atmosphere or corona - as seen in this remote camera video taken at the pad. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

Here’s my BBC TV World News Pre-Launch interview:

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Orbital ATK and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com 

Dr. Kremer is a research scientist and journalist based in the KSC area. 

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Ken’s photos are for sale and he is available for lectures and outreach events