One year after the Parker Solar Probe left Earth forever for a date with the sun, the spacecraft is having a fantastic run. The mission, named after University of Chicago Professor Eugene Parker to honor his decades of work which shaped the field of heliophysics, has already come closer to the sun than any spacecraft ever has—and continues to gradually make its way closer. Prof. Parker traveled to watch the spacecraft launch in Cape Canaveral on Aug. 12, 2018, witnessing his first-ever rocket launch. “So much has gone into this launch, and then to see it all disappear slowly—fading away into the night sky, knowing it will never come back—it was a moving experience,” he said. Since then, Parker has been receiving updates on the mission from its scientists. He sat down with NASA's Nicky Fox to get an update on the mission's progress. ➡ Subscribe: About #UChicago: Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining research.
