NASA's Parker Solar Probe lifts off successfully
Miami, Aug 12 : NASA on Sunday successfully launched the Parker Solar Probe, the US space agency's historic small car-size probe to "touch the Sun," from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"3-2-1... and we have liftoff of Parker #SolarProbe atop @ULAlaunch's #DeltaIV Heavy rocket," the US-based space agency tweeted.
The launch was initially planned for Saturday morning.
The probe is named after Eugene Parker, a solar physicist, who in 1958 first predicted the existence of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles and magnetic fields that flow continuously from the sun.
Nestled atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy -- one of the world's most powerful rockets -- with a third stage added, Parker Solar Probe will blasted off toward the sun with a whopping 55 times more energy than was required to reach Mars.
Weighing just 635 kgs, it is a relatively light spacecraft, Andy Driesman, project manager for the mission at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the US, said in an earlier statement.
Zooming through space in a highly elliptical orbit, the Parker Solar Probe will reach speeds of up to 700,000 kms per hour, setting the record for the fastest spacecraft in history.
During its nominal mission lifetime of just under seven years, the Parker Solar Probe will complete 24 orbits of the Sun -- reaching within 3.8 million miles of the Sun's surface at the closest approach.
In an orbit this close to the Sun, the real challenge is to keep the spacecraft from burning up.
3-2-1… and we have liftoff of Parker #SolarProbe atop @ULAlaunch’s #DeltaIV Heavy rocket. Tune in as we broadcast our mission to “touch” the Sun: https://t.co/T3F4bqeATB pic.twitter.com/Ah4023Vfvn
— NASA (@NASA) August 12, 2018
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AI, AI Express look to add capacity amid IndiGo flight disruptions
New Delhi (PTI): Air India Group is looking to add capacity to help passengers impacted by the IndiGo flight disruptions.
"Since 4 December, economy class airfares on non-stop domestic flights have been proactively capped to prevent the usual demand-and-supply mechanism being applied by revenue management systems," a statement said on Saturday.
Both Air India and Air India Express have put in place caps on economy class fares.
ALSO READ: IndiGo cancels over 200 flights from Delhi, Mumbai on Saturday
The statement from Air India came hours after the government announced introduction of airfare caps amid IndiGo flight disruptions.
Air India also said it is not technically possible to cap fares for all flight permutations.
"Air India and Air India Express are seeking to add capacity to help travellers and their baggage reach their destinations as quickly as possible," the statement said.
