NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched on Aug. 12, 2018, aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. The Parker Solar Probe's mission is to study the sun in unprecedented detail.
The revolutionary solar probe became the first spacecraft to "touch" the sun when it swooped inside the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, during its eighth flyby on April 28, 2021, according to a statement from NASA. The probe will complete 24 orbits of the sun over its seven-year lifespan and fly seven times closer to our star than any other spacecraft.
