Cosmos Mania

Solar Probe will be the first-ever mission to "touch" the sun. The spacecraft, about the size of a small car, will travel directly into the sun's atmosphere about 4 million miles from our star's surface. Launch is slated for summer 2018. Credit: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

In this time-lapse video taken on Sept. 21, 2017, the thermal protection system – the heat shield -- for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spacecraft is shown during installation at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. This 4.5-inch thick, eight-foot diameter shield protects the spacecraft and its instruments against the intense heat and energy of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, through which the spacecraft will fly on a mission of extreme exploration. The thermal protection system is made of a carbon-carbon composite material with a special outer coating that will reach temperatures of nearly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat shield was placed on the probe for a test of alignment as part of integration and testing, but it will soon be removed. Both spacecraft and shield will continue separate testing processes and then be re-integrated just before launch in summer 2018.