NASA Digest, Vol 48, Issue 16

	May 26, 2017  MEDIA ADVISORY M17-061 NASA to Make Announcement About First Mission to Touch Sun This illustrations depicts the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft leaving Earth, after separating from its launch vehicle and booster rocket, bound for the inner solar system and an unprecedented study of the Sun. Credits: JHU/APL NASA will make an announcement about the agency's first mission to fly directly into our sun's atmosphere during an event at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, May 31, from the University of Chicago's William Eckhardt Research Center Auditorium. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website. The mission, Solar Probe Plus, is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2018. Placed in orbit within four million miles of the sun's surface, and facing heat and radiation unlike any spacecraft in history, the spacecraft will explore the sun's outer atmosphere and make critical observations that will answer decades-old questions about the physics of how stars work. The resulting data will improve forecasts of major space weather events that impact life on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space. Participants include: Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington Nicola Fox, mission project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland Eugene Parker, S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Eric Isaacs, executive vice president for research, innovation and national laboratories at the University of Chicago Rocky Kolb, dean of the Division of the Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago For more information on the mission and agency solar-related activities, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/sun
	Press Contacts Dwayne Brown / Karen Fox Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 / 301-286-6284 dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / karen.c.fox@nasa.gov  Michael Buckley / Geoff Brown Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. 240-228-7536 / 240-460-2505 michael.buckley@jhuapl.edu / geoffrey.brown@jhuapl.edu Mark Peters University of Chicago 773-702-8356 petersm@uchicago.edu