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<\/p>\nNASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe is in its final, home-stretch of processing prior to its scheduled launch which is now No Earlier Than (NET) 6 August 2018 atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. The mission, which will be humanity\u2019s first to \u201ctouch the surface of the Sun\u201d, is preparing for encapsulation inside its payload fairing at the Astrotech processing facility in Titusville, Florida \u2013 after which it will be mated to the top of the launch vehicle.<\/p>\n
Launch site preparations began in earnest in July and August 2017 with the arrival of the three Common Booster Cores of the Delta IV rocket that form the first stage of the Delta IV Heavy configuration.<\/p>\n
The Delta IV cores were all assembled in Decatur, Alabama, just west of Huntsville.<\/p>\n
After mating the three Common Booster Cores together, technicians inside the Horizontal Integration Facility at SLC-37B mated the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (a modified version of which will serve as the SLS Block 1 rocket\u2019s second stage) to the top of the three boosters in March 2018.<\/p>\n
Immediately thereafter, the Parker Solar Probe itself arrived in Titusville, Florida, at the Astrotech processing center on 3 April \u2013 where its final sequence of processing activities and checkouts for launch began.<\/p>\n
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Artist\u2019s depiction of NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe as it heads toward a grazing encounter with the Sun. (Credit: NASA)<\/p>\n
For the rocket, after a month of integrated checkouts in the integration facility, United Launch Alliance engineers rolled the assembled Delta IV Heavy the short ways from its hanger to the launch mounts at SLC-37B on 16 April and erected the rocket on the pad the following day.<\/p>\n
Unlike the other rockets currently available in the U.S. fleet, the Delta IV, especially the Heavy variant, spends by far the most amount of time on its seaside launch pad undergoing final launch preparations. <\/p>\n
Extended, multi-month pad flows are not only common for this particular rocket offered by United Launch Alliance (ULA) but is done, in part, to assure the rocket\u2019s functionality for critical missions \u2013 such as Parker Solar Probe, which needs to launch in a very short interplanetary launch window.<\/p>\n
Aerospace & Defense (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n To this end, extensive testing has been undertaken by the ULA team to ensure all of the Delta IV Heavy\u2019s systems are functioning properly and that any avoidable, last-minute surprises on launch day or during the duration of the launch window are evaded.<\/p>\n The testing is not entirely foolproof, with certain elements of the rocket subject to the so-called \u201clightbulb test\u201d \u2013 meaning regardless of how many times they are tested, they can still break or malfunction when needed.<\/p>\n