Sun probe “Parker” — new spacecraft space Agency NASA, called “touch the Sun” — fully assembled, loaded into the booster and is ready to be scheduled for this Saturday (11 August), the launch from the launch pad at Kennedy Space center in Florida, according to a press release NASA. The only factor that can stop the run is the weather, notes the Agency. According to experts, the likelihood that the launch will take place on Saturday is 70 percent.
And yet, given the unpredictable summer weather of Florida, the project team is concerned about the possibility of thunderstorms at the time of launch. However, this probability is extremely small in the morning (local time), according to experts of meteorological services, the U.S. air force. However meteorology will continue to monitor the thunderstorm and lightning that could prevent the launch.
Saturday’s launch window will remain open for about 65 minutes, says the head of start Omar Baez from the Kennedy Space center. If the launch will be made after this time, there is a possibility that the spacecraft may be damaged when flying through the radiation of van Allen belt surrounding the Earth. This, of course, experts will try by all means to avoid.
Rehearsal run, held on 8 August, went smoothly, said Baez. The latest weather forecast will be obtained on August 10. After that, the project managers will determine whether to perform the filling of the launch vehicle and conduct final preparations for Saturday’s launch to get into the Saturday window.
If the unit will not start on Saturday, another window will be open on Sunday (August 12). In General, the launch window will be open until August 23. But it has to wait for the unlikely to have. At the moment the likelihood that weather can prevent to start the machine on Saturday is around 40 percent, on Monday 20 percent, according to the meteorological Agency.
Build Solar probe “Parker” set him sun screen
Cost of project Solar probe “Parker” is estimated at $ 1.5 billion. For NASA it will be the first mission, which will use heavy carrier rocket “Delta-4” of United Launch Alliance (ULA). For the very same class of these missiles the launch will be the 10th.
“This is a very cool rocket. It is the second most powerful rocket in the world after super-heavy Falcon Heavy from SpaceX,” commented the head of the project group launches ULA Scott Messer.
In addition to the two stages of the rocket “Delta-4” acceleration of the space probe will be engaged in the third stage, developed by Northrop Grumman. Its engines will begin later, 37 minutes after launch the rocket from the launch pad in Florida. Through this scheme scientists expect the machine to disperse 724 205 km/h, making it the fastest man-made spacecraft in Earth’s history.
Probe Parker is scheduled to orbit the Sun at a distance of 6.2 million kilometers. If the launch will take place this Saturday at the photosphere of our sun, it will have in November this year.
Sun probe “Parker” is fully ready for Saturday launch
Nikolai Khizhnyak