NASA just successfully launched the fastest spacecraft in history in a $1.5 billion attempt to 'touch the sun'

REUTERS / Mike Brown

• NASA launched its Parker Solar Probe on Sunday morning.
• A Saturday launch attempt was delayed due to a technical glitch.
• The Parker Solar Probe will have to travel about 430,000 mph and use a high-tech heat shield to survive the trip.
• The probe is designed to study the sun's ultra-hot outer atmosphere, called the corona, among other mysteries of our star.
• The mission may help scientists predict space weather events that can wreak havoc on Earth.

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We have lift off. NASA's much-anticipated Parker Solar Probe - a spacecraft which it is said will "touch" the sun – has been launched from Cape Canaveral.

The car-sized satellite was blasted into space from the Florida base at 3.31am eastern time (8.31am BST) on Sunday morning.

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See Also:

• NASA is about to 'touch' a star for the first time — here are the hellish conditions the Parker Solar Probe must survive
• NASA is flying a $1.5 billion spacecraft into the sun — here's why
• NASA's biggest-ever hunt for alien planets is finally underway — and the agency expects to discover 'strange, fantastic worlds'

SEE ALSO: SpaceX is quietly planning Mars-landing missions with the help of NASA and other spaceflight experts. It's about time.

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