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Parker Solar Probe cleared for launch to ‘touch the sun’
NASA managers Thursday cleared the $1.5 billion Parker Solar Probe for launch early Saturday on a daring mission to "touch the sun," repeatedly flying through its outer atmosphere to find out why the blazing corona is millions of degrees hotter than our star's visible surface.

Photos: Parker Solar Probe closed up inside Delta 4 fairing for launch
Ready for a journey into the sun's enigmatic, scorching corona, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has been encapsulated inside the nose cone of its Delta 4-Heavy rocket for liftoff Saturday.

NASA signs off on SpaceX’s “load-and-go” procedure for crew launches
The NASA manager overseeing development of Boeing and SpaceX's commercial crew ferry ships says the space agency has approved SpaceX's proposal to strap in astronauts atop Falcon 9 rockets, then fuel the launchers in the final hour of the countdown as the company does for its uncrewed missions.

NASA reveals crews for first flights of commercial spaceships
NASA announced Friday a mix of spaceflight veterans and rookie astronauts who will launch on the first flights of new Boeing and SpaceX commercial spaceships starting as soon as next spring, several months later than previously scheduled.
VideoWatch live as NASA announces astronaut crews for new U.S. spacecraft
NASA is announcing the astronauts who will fly the first crewed test flights of the SpaceX Dragon 2 and Boeing Starliner capsules next year. The event at the Johnson Space Center is due to get underway at 11am EDT (1500 GMT).

Photos: Astronauts trained in emergency procedures at Atlas 5 launch pad
Several NASA astronauts, plus Boeing test pilot Chris Ferguson, recently participated in a training session at Cape Canaveral, practicing how they would evacuate from the Atlas 5 rocket's launch pad in the event of a countdown emergency.

NASA’s last shuttle commander to helm test flight of Boeing crew capsule
NASA's last space shuttle commander -- former U.S. Navy fighter pilot Chris Ferguson -- will fly Boeing's CST-100 Starliner crew capsule on its first piloted test mission to the International Space Station next year.

Boeing delays crew capsule test flights after abort engine problem
Boeing has reshuffled a sequence of test flights planned for the company's CST-100 Starliner capsule after stuck valves inside a test version of the ship's service module caused a fuel spill in June, delaying the commercial spacecraft's first unpiloted orbital demo mission until late this year or early 2019, and moving back the first crew launch to mid-2019, a company official said Wednesday.

Q&A with Andrew Driesman, project manager for Parker Solar Probe (members only)
Andrew Driesman is project manager for NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, leading a team of engineers and operators in charge of the first mission to fly through the sun's atmosphere.

Solar probe moves into launch position at Cape Canaveral
NASA's Parker Solar Probe, fueled and buttoned up for liftoff Aug. 11 on the first mission to fly through the sun's corona, arrived at its launch pad at Cape Canaveral early Tuesday after a convoy trip from a nearby fueling and test facility.