Dr. Eugene PKSC-20180809-PH KLS02 0003arker Speaks to Media (30123740568) (cropped)

In the Kennedy Space Centerâs Operations Support Building II, Dr. Eugene Parker, a pioneer in heliophysics and S. Chandrasekhar distinguished service professor emeritus for the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, speaks to members of news and social media in a prelaunch mission briefing about NASA's Parker Solar Probe on Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018. The spacecraft is designed to provide key observations on his groundbreaking theories about the Sun. This is the first NASA mission named for a living person. Lift off atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket will take place from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft was built by Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland. The mission will perform the closest-ever observations of a star when it 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