We do not have lift off. Nasa’s much-anticipated Parker Solar Probe – a spacecraft which it is claimed will “touch” the sun – failed to launch following a countdown on Saturday morning.
Engineers “scrubbed” takeoff at the last second for as-yet unknown reasons. It has been rescheduled for Sunday morning instead.
The car-sized satellite was due to blast into space from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 4.28 am eastern time but millions of viewers watching online were left disappointed as nothing happened.
“This mornings launch of @NASASuns #ParkerSolarProbe was scrubbed,” Nasa tweeted. “Launch teams will attempt to launch on Sunday morning.”
Over the next seven years, it will dip directly into the Suns roasting hot outer atmosphere in a bid to unlock some of the solar systems greatest secrets.
In particular, scientist hope Parker will provide information about solar winds and solar energy particles.
The craft will endure temperatures of more than 1,300C while looping round the Sun a planned 24 times and sending its data back to Earth. At some points, it will move to just 3.83 million miles from the stars broiling surface.
