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![](https://www.spsnational.org/sites/default/files/images/publications/observer/2018/feature-rocket-web.jpg)
At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37, the Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Parker Solar probe, lifts off at 3:31 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018. The spacecraft was built by the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when the probe travels through the Sun’s atmosphere, called the corona. The probe will rely on measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and the Sun–Earth connection. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett