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The probe was scheduled to take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 09:28 UK time, but one minute and 55 seconds before the launch was postponed after a technical error.
The launch of the probe, which will be carried on the back of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV heavy rocket, is scheduled for Sunday morning.
A new launch window opens at 8:31 pm UK time (3:31 am local time) and stays open for 60 minutes.
Image: The payload of the United Launch Alliance Alliance IV heavy rocket. Pic: Bill Ingalls / NASA
Thousands of people gathered in Cape Canaveral to witness the takeoff that was originally scheduled to take place at 4:38 am local time.
Among them was Eugene Parker, the astrophysicist of the University of Chicago after .
Since the Parker Solar Probe probe rotates around the sun, it will experience extreme radiation and temperatures as high as 1370 ° C (2510 F) – close to the melting point of steel.
To withstand the heat, it was covered with a special carbon composite screen 4.5 "(11.3 cm) thick able to withstand temperatures of up to 1 650 ° C (3002 ° F).
It will be more than seven times closer than the current record holder of a closed solar pass, a record set by the Helios 2 spacecraft in 1976.
Ready for takeoff! The Parker, our mission to touch the Sun, will have its first chance to take off on Saturday, August 11th at 3:33 am. The launch teams work without technical problems and the weather should represent 70% chances of favorable conditions:
– NASA ()
"The main scientific objectives of the mission are to track the evolution of energy and heat in the solar corona and to explore what accelerates the solar wind as well as the solar energy particles", explained NASA.
"Scientists have been looking for these answers for more than 60 years, but the investigation requires sending a probe in the 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit of the crown.
"Today, this is finally possible thanks to the advanced advances in thermal engineering that can protect the mission during its dangerous journey.
"Parker Solar Probe will feature four instrument suites designed to study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles, and to visualize the solar wind."
Image: The probe has been equipped with materials to withstand extreme heat. Pic: NASA
After launch, the sensor will move at 430,000 mph, the fastest speed ever achieved by a spacecraft.
NASA said, "Parker Solar Probe will provide unprecedented information on our sun, where changing conditions can extend to the solar system to affect Earth and other worlds."
The probe will fly directly into the sun's atmosphere and trace the movement of energy and heat with the particles that form the solar winds.
It will take six years to reach its nearest point of the sun in 2024, using the gravity of Venus to get closer to the star.
Image: The orbits of the probe are gradually approaching the sun. Pic: NASA
The probe will help scientists better understand the nature of the sun by taking measurements of solar winds, a flow of ionized gases.
If scientists better understand solar activity, they could use it to predict the large solar flares that pose a threat to satellites orbiting the Earth.
Scientists also hope the probe can help them understand why the crown, the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere, is 300 times hotter than its surface.
Image: Illustration of the probe leaving the Earth. Pic: NASA
This is a phenomenon that has puzzled NASA scientists because the sun's atmosphere "gets a lot hotter as it extends from the flaming surface of the sun".
The probe will be monitored from the mission's operations center based at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL), where NASA manages its unmanned missions.
Manned missions, such as the Apollo lunar landings, were carried out from Christopher C Kraft Mission Control Center in Houston, from where he acquired his famous radio call sign.
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