This morning the Parker Solar Probe made a flyby of the planet Venus as a part of its path to the Sun. The Parker Solar Probe is using the gravity of Venus to slow it down in such a way as to take it closer to the Sun on each successive orbit, eventually bringing it […]
Here’s a neat little bit of video you don’t get too often for a Delta IV – footage from onboard during launch. While this footage is always awesome to watch, and is rather common among some other boosters and launch providers, for Delta IV onboard footage has been a little scarce through the years. This […]
What United Launch Alliance rocket flight would be complete without a launch highlights video? The Parker Solar Probe is no exception here, as we have yet another fine blend of preparation shots and best of views of the early ascent of the Delta IV Heavy. Of note in this video is the man shown watching […]
After multiple delays, eventually resulting in a scrub for the original planned August 11th launch date, the Parker Solar Probe successfully began its mission mission to “touch the Sun” this morning at 3:31 AM . Yeah, quite early, but early enough that I could easily just stay awake to watch it, and I’m glad I […]
I didn’t get much sleep last night. I, of course, stayed awake to watch the launch of the Parker Solar Probe. Sadly, that launch didn’t happen this morning as planned. The original launch time of 3:33AM Eastern was pushed back by 20 minutes to accommodate some issues experienced in the countdown. Those issues were resolved, […]
Here we have the third video I wanted to share today regarding the Parker Solar Probe. This video is titled “It’s Surprisingly Hard to Go to the Sun” and covers, in pretty simple terms, the actual difficult faced in going to the Sun from Earth. Orbital mechanics is a funny thing – to go higher […]
Next up in my pre-launch sharing of content related to the Parker Solar Probe mission is this United Launch Alliance video on the launch vehicle for this mission – the Delta IV Heavy – and the flight plan that will put the Parker Solar Probe on a course for the Sun. Delta IV Heavy is […]
It’s time for another historic NASA mission to begin. This time, it isn’t to another world – this isn’t a Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, or even a Pluto probe. Oh no, this is something much more intense. Tonight or, more correctly, early this Saturday Morning, August 11th 2018 a Delta IV Heavy booster will launch […]