Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA和美国联合发射联盟（ULA）发射帕克太阳探测器开启接触太阳的历史性行程。NASA的帕克太阳探测器周日在佛罗里达发射，开启了飞往太阳的旅程，它将承担一项标志性的使命。帕克探测器将在十二月份传输首批科学观测数据，开启一项革命，刷新我们对太阳这颗让地球上得以有生命的恒星的认知。

帕克探测器大小类似小型汽车，东部夏令时凌晨3:31 由美国联合发射联盟的“德尔塔” -4重型火箭从卡纳维拉尔角空军基地发射升空。

该项任务以物理学家尤金·帕克的名字命名，他在1958年首先理论阐述了太阳风的存在。这是第一个以一位仍然在世的科研人员命名的NASA任务。https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-ula-launch-parker-solar-probe-on-historic-journey-to-touch-sun

NASA, ULA Launch Parker Solar Probe on Historic Journey to Touch Sun

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched from Florida Sunday to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission. The spacecraft will transmit its first science observations in December, beginning a revolution in our understanding of the star that makes life on Earth possible. 

Roughly the size of a small car, the spacecraft lifted off at 3:31 a.m. EDT on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. 

The mission is named for Eugene Parker, the physicist who first theorized the existence of the solar wind in 1958. It’s the first NASA mission to be named for a living researcher.