On July 31, 2018, NASA will launch it’s first ever probe to the sun. It’s something they’ve wanted to do for 60 years, but couldn’t until now when the technology to do so caught up. Nicola Fox, NASA Parker Solar Probe Project Scientist (left in the video interview) and Elizabeth Congdon, Parker Solar Probe Lead Thermal Protection System Engineer (pictured right in the interview) at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory explain the project and how it feels to finally launch after working on it for over 10 years.

The Parker Solar Probe will surf around the sun at 430,000 miles per hour for six years and eleven months. Data will be transmitted back to researchers roughly every three months, or when the uplink is available to download from the probe when it’s visible from the sun’s view.

Touch the Sun: NASA’s First Mission to Our Star was a panel held at the Fairmont on Friday, March 9, as part of SXSW 18.