Parker Solar Probe is the NASA spacecraft that has flown closer to the Sun than any other.
nasa-parker-solar-probe Parker Solar Probe was designed and built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA. It flies through the Sun's corona, its outer atmosphere, to measure magnetic fields, energetic particles and the solar wind, the stream of particles flowing off the Sun.
A heat shield 2.43 m across protects the instruments. It is two carbon-carbon panels with a carbon foam core between them, and the foam is 97% air. The shield weighs only about 160 lb, yet its face reaches nearly 2,500 F while the instruments stay near room temperature.
NASA's probe that flies through the Sun's corona to measure the solar wind, magnetic fields and energetic particles. A carbon heat shield keeps the instruments near room temperature while the shield face heats to about 2,500 F. It has made the closest approaches to the Sun of any spacecraft.
Two panels of carbon-carbon composite sandwich a carbon foam core 4.5 inches thick. The outer panel carries a sprayed white coating based on aluminium oxide, with a tungsten layer thinner than a hair between coating and shield. The whole shield rests on a titanium truss.
Water circulates through mini-channels in the solar arrays and through four radiators, absorbing heat. The radiator tubes are titanium, which will not corrode, and the fins are aluminium, just two hundredths of an inch thick. Parker is the first scientific mission to use water-cooled solar arrays.
The FIELDS instrument has four electric-field antennas, each 2 m long and made of niobium alloy C-103, which can withstand extreme temperatures. The Solar Probe Cup, a metal device that catches charged particles, has a heat shield of the same alloy and uses sapphire to keep its parts electrically separate.
Twelve MR-111C thrusters use hydrazine propellant, each producing one pound of thrust. They handle attitude, momentum and trajectory control. Reaction wheels also help reposition the spacecraft within the shadow of the heat shield.
The two face sheets of the heat shield, which sandwich the foam core.
The 4.5-inch core of the heat shield. It is 97% air.
A white ceramic coating sprayed on the outer panel of the heat shield.
A layer thinner than a strand of hair between the shield and its white coating.
The FIELDS instrument's four antennas and the heat shield of the Solar Probe Cup. It can withstand extreme temperatures.
The coolant that circulates through the solar arrays and the four radiators.
Parker flew on a Delta IV Heavy, which burns an RS-68A in each of its three booster cores and an RL10B-2 in its second stage. Aerojet Rocketdyne made the probe's own twelve thrusters, the same model that helped steer New Horizons. Carbon-Carbon Advanced Technologies made the shield panels, Ultramet the foam, SolAero the solar arrays and United Technologies Aerospace Systems the cooling system.
Aerojet Rocketdyne 1 lbf monopropellant thrusters used for attitude, momentum and trajectory control
launched 12 August 2018 from Space Launch Complex-37, Cape Canaveral
each of the three common booster cores burns one RS-68A; 702,000 lb thrust each
Aerojet Rocketdyne
single RL10B-2 on the second stage, 24,750 lb thrust; RL10 family hub is ula-rl10
third stage built by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems; burned after second-stage separation
the MR-111C thrusters are the same model that steered New Horizons toward Pluto
APL's MESSENGER taught the team how to design arrays that resist ultraviolet degradation
built the full in-space propulsion system, plus the launcher's RS-68A and RL10B-2 engines
manufactured the solar array cooling system
produced the solar arrays
built the carbon-carbon shield panels
supplied the carbon foam for the shield core
sprayed the white ceramic coating on the outer shield panel
designed and built the spacecraft and runs mission operations
NASA
Titanium. Here: Radiator tubes (x4 radiators); Titanium truss under the heat shield. There: Backplane fittings and interfaces.
Aluminium. Here: Radiator fins. There: Sunshield layer coating (all 5 layers).
hydrazine. Here: MR-111C hydrazine thrusters (x12). There: Monopropellant engine fuel.
Silicon. Here: EPI-Hi silicon detectors. There: Silicon readout integrated circuit (ROIC).
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Titanium. Here: Radiator tubes (x4 radiators); Titanium truss under the heat shield. There: Propellant tanks (2); Instrument mounting flexures.
Aluminium. Here: Radiator fins. There: Primary structure (heating/cooling panel, edge members, fittings, brackets); Optical-bench heater aluminum tape and more.
hydrazine. Here: MR-111C hydrazine thrusters (x12). There: Propellant.
ESA
Titanium. Here: Radiator tubes (x4 radiators); Titanium truss under the heat shield. There: Focal plane interconnecting structure; Instrument mounting feet / flexures and more.
Aluminium. Here: Radiator fins. There: Telescope (structure and mirrors, 3 telescopes).
ESA / Airbus
Titanium. Here: Radiator tubes (x4 radiators); Titanium truss under the heat shield. There: OBA unit attachment fittings; Instrument support bipods (3).
Aluminium. Here: Radiator fins. There: Main structure tube; Equipment box (EQB) and more.
Boeing
Titanium. Here: Radiator tubes (x4 radiators); Titanium truss under the heat shield. There: Tread chevrons; Inner frame (MESH-1 prototype wheel; flight material not stated).
Aluminium. Here: Radiator fins. There: Hub and wheel disc (MESH-1 prototype wheel).
Grumman / NASA
Titanium. Here: Radiator tubes (x4 radiators); Titanium truss under the heat shield. There: Some brackets and fasteners (lunar module); Descent-stage hot-area structure and more.
Aluminium. Here: Radiator fins. There: Cabin front-face, RCS cluster trusses, decks and bulkheads; Micrometeoroid shield and more.
Some details are still missing. The makers do not say which fibre and resin go into the carbon-carbon panels, or what small additions go into the white coating. The type of solar cell, the battery chemistry, the number of reaction wheels and the material of the main body are not published either.
What is written above is built from these numbers and quotes. Each row links to the page it was taken from. Get all of it as JSON, or ask our MCP server.
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Launch | 12 August 2018 |
| Spacecraft mass | 1,510 lb (685 kg) at launch |
| Heat shield thickness | 4.5 in (11.43 cm) |
| Heat shield mass | About 160 lb |
| Heat shield temperature | Nearly 2,500 F (1,377 C) |
| Foam air content | 97% air |
| Planned orbits | 24 orbits over seven years |
| Heat shield size | 2.43 m diameter, 11.4 cm thick |
| Temperature behind the shield | about 30 C |
| Coolant volume | about five liters of deionized, pressurized water |
| Coolant operating range | 10 C to 125 C |
| Radiators | four, two released at launch and two later |
| Water release | about two-thirds of a gallon at launch and one-third of a gallon later |
| Array temperature limit | below 302 F |
| Transponder bands | Ka-band and X-band |
| Launch vehicle performance | Delta IV Heavy lifts 14,210 kg to GTO |
Each material named in the sources: where it is used here, which other products use it, and its key numbers when its material page exists.
Used in 2 partsFIELDS electric-field antennas V1 to V4 (x4) · Solar Probe Cup heat shield
Used in 2 partsRadiator tubes (x4 radiators) · Titanium truss under the heat shield
Used in 1 partRadiator fins
Used in 1 partSun-facing coating
Used in 1 partWISPR lenses
Used in 1 partHeat shield core
Used in 1 partHeat shield face sheets (2)
Used in 1 partEPI-Lo entrance foils
Used in 1 partCeramic carrier under each solar cell
Used in 1 partWhite ceramic coating on the shield's outer panel (application)
Used in 1 partSolar cell cover glass
Used in 1 partCoolant
Used in 1 partMR-111C hydrazine thrusters (x12)
Used in 1 partSolar Probe Cup sapphire insulators
Used in 1 partEPI-Hi silicon detectors
Used in 1 partThermally conductive adhesive (cell carrier to platen)
Used in 1 partCoating barrier layer
Heat-shield layers and coolant are stated; spacecraft bus, arrays and electronics materials are not. Components, suppliers and links were added from public sources. A material is left blank where no source states it.
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat shield face sheets (2)“two panels of superheated carbon-carbon composite sandwiching a lightweight 4.5-inch-thick carbon foam core” | carbon-carbon compositecarbon-carbon | — | — |
| Heat shield core“two panels of superheated carbon-carbon composite sandwiching a lightweight 4.5-inch-thick carbon foam core” | carbon foamcarbon-foam | — | — |
| Sun-facing coating“the team settled on a coating based on bright white aluminum oxide” | aluminum oxide (alumina), dopedalumina | — | — |
| Coating barrier layer“the engineers added a layer of tungsten, thinner than a strand of hair” | tungstentungsten | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coolant“approximately two-thirds of a gallon of deionized water” | deionized waterwater | — | — |
| Cooling system (complete, 6,000 W)pumped-water loop that keeps the exposed solar arrays at about 160 C or below“United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS) in Windsor Locks, Connecticut (which manufactured the cooling system)” | Not said | — | Supplier: United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS), Windsor Locks, Connecticut |
| Radiator tubes (x4 radiators)carry the hot water through the radiators“four radiators made of titanium tubes (which won’t corrode)” | titanium (tubes; grade not stated)titanium | — | Supplier: United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS) |
| Radiator finsthin fins that shed heat to space“sporting aluminum fins just two hundredths of an inch thick” | aluminum (fins; alloy not stated)aluminium | — | Supplier: United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS) |
| Heated accumulator tankholds the water during launch so it cannot freeze“a heated accumulator tank that will hold the water during launch” | Not said | — | — |
| Two-speed pumpscirculate the water between the arrays and the radiators“two-speed pumps; and four radiators made of titanium tubes” | Not said | — | — |
| Latch valveopens after separation to release warm water into the first two radiators and the arrays“a latch valve will open to release the warm water into two of the four radiators and the solar arrays” | Not said | — | — |
| Mini-channels in the solar arrayscarry water through the array panels to absorb heat“Water flows through mini-channels embedded in the solar arrays to absorb heat” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spacecraft buscarries the shield, arrays, propulsion, telecom and four instrument suites“The spacecraft was designed and built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.” | Not said | — | Supplier: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Laurel, Maryland) |
| Titanium truss under the heat shieldsupports the thermal protection system; the cooling radiators sit within it“The shield sits atop a truss made of titanium” | titanium (grade not stated)titanium | — | — |
| White ceramic coating on the shield's outer panel (application)reflects sunlight from the Sun-facing panel“created the recipe for a ceramic-based white coating that was sprayed evenly across the outer shield panel” | ceramic-based white coating (composition not stated on this page)ceramic-white-coating-unspecified | — | Supplier: Plasma Processes (Alabama); recipe by Johns Hopkins researchers |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solar array wings (x2)primary power source; two arrays release from launch locks and tilt away from the Sun near perihelion“SolAero Technologies of Albuquerque, New Mexico (which produces the solar arrays)” | Not said | — | Supplier: SolAero Technologies (Albuquerque, New Mexico) |
| Solar cell cover glassprotective glass over the photovoltaic cells“The cover glass on top of the photovoltaic cells is standard” | cover glass (type not stated)cover-glass-unspecified | — | — |
| Ceramic carrier under each solar cellmoves heat from the cell into the panel platen“A special ceramic carrier was created and soldered to the bottom of each cell” | ceramic (type not stated)ceramic-carrier-unspecified | — | — |
| Thermally conductive adhesive (cell carrier to platen)bonds the carrier to the platen while giving electrical insulation“attached to the platen with a specially chosen thermally conductive adhesive” | thermally conductive adhesive (type not stated)thermally-conductive-adhesive-unspecified | — | — |
| Solar array launch lockshold the arrays stowed until the spacecraft separates; released autonomously“the solar arrays will release from their launch locks” | Not said | — | — |
| Batterystores power; recharged by the cooled arrays after launch (chemistry not stated)“power from the cooled solar arrays will begin recharging the battery” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Propellant tank and feed systemholds and feeds the hydrazine to the thrusters“the system consists of a propellant tank, feed system and 12 MR-111C hydrazine thrusters, each generating one pound of thrust” | Not said | — | Supplier: Aerojet Rocketdyne (built and tested in Redmond, Washington; now L3Harris) |
| MR-111C hydrazine thrusters (x12)attitude and momentum control, momentum dumps and course corrections“the system consists of a propellant tank, feed system and 12 MR-111C hydrazine thrusters, each generating one pound of thrust” | hydrazine (propellant)hydrazine | — | Supplier: Aerojet Rocketdyne (now L3Harris) |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reaction wheels (number not stated)reposition the spacecraft back into the shield's shadow; thrusters dump their momentum“engaging movements from reaction wheels to reposition the spacecraft within the shadow again” | Not said | — | — |
| Solar limb sensorslight sensors that catch the first trace of direct sunlight at the shield edge so the spacecraft can re-center in the shadow“the thermal protection system, solar array wings, solar limb sensors, FIELDS instrument electrical field antennae, and SWEAP instrument solar particle cup” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| High-gain antennasends high-rate science data to Earth; released from launch locks on 13 August 2018“the high-gain antenna, which Parker Solar Probe uses to communicate high-rate science data to Earth, was released from locks which held it stable during launch” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| FIELDS electric-field antennas V1 to V4 (x4)2 m whip antennas sticking out beyond the heat shield into sunlight“The 2-meter-long antennas are made of a niobium alloy, which can withstand extreme temperatures.” | niobium C-103 alloyniobium-c-103 | — | — |
| FIELDS fifth electric-field antenna (V5)sits in the shade of the heat shield for 3-D electric-field measurements at higher frequencies“The fifth antenna, which sticks out perpendicular to the others in the shade of the heat shield” | Not said | — | — |
| Search-coil magnetometer (SCM)tracks fast changes in the magnetic field close to the Sun“A search-coil magnetometer, or SCM, measures how the magnetic field changes over time.” | Not said | — | — |
| Fluxgate magnetometers MAGi and MAGo (x2)measure the large-scale coronal magnetic field“Two identical fluxgate magnetometers, MAGi and MAGo, measure the large-scale coronal magnetic field.” | Not said | — | — |
| Magnetometer boomboom carrying three magnetometers and the fifth electric-field antenna; fully deployed 13 August 2018“This boom contains three magnetometers and a fifth, smaller electric field antenna” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| WISPR cameras (x2)image the corona and solar wind from afar“two cameras with radiation-hardened Active Pixel Sensor CMOS detectors” | Not said | — | — |
| WISPR lensesoptics of the two WISPR cameras“The camera’s lenses are made of a radiation hard BK7, a common type of glass used for space telescopes” | BK7 glass (radiation-hard grade)bk7-glass | — | — |
| WISPR baffles and occultersabsorb or reflect stray light diffracted off the heat-shield edge“Specially designed baffles and occulters reflect and absorb the residual stray light” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solar Probe Cup (SPC)Faraday cup mounted just beyond the shield that counts solar-wind ions and electrons“SPC is what’s known as a Faraday cup, a metal device that can catch charged particles in a vacuum.” | Not said | — | — |
| Solar Probe Cup heat shieldsmall shield around the cup“Like the FIELDS antennas, Solar Probe Cup’s heat shield is constructed of niobium C-103.” | niobium C-103 alloyniobium-c-103 | — | — |
| Solar Probe Cup sapphire insulatorselectrically isolate components inside the cup“The instrument uses pieces of sapphire to electrically isolate different components within the cup.” | sapphiresapphire | — | — |
| Solar Probe Analyzers SPAN-A and SPAN-Belectrostatic analyzers with wide fields of view; SPAN-A sees electrons and ions, SPAN-B electrons only“SPAN is composed of two instruments, SPAN-A and SPAN-B, which have wide fields of view” | Not said | — | — |
| Part | Material | Finish and standard | Made by |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPI-Lolow-energy electron and ion spectrometer shaped like a sea urchin with 80 viewfinders“with an octagonal dome body supporting 80 viewfinders, each about the size of a dime” | Not said | — | — |
| EPI-Lo entrance foilstwo foils that an ion crosses before reaching the solid-state detector“first passes through two carbon-polyimide-aluminum foils and then encounters a solid-state detector” | carbon-polyimide-aluminum foilcarbon-polyimide-aluminum-foil | — | — |
| EPI-Hi (three particle sensors)higher-energy particle telescopes built from stacked detector layers“EPI-Hi uses three particle sensors composed of stacked layers of detectors” | Not said | — | — |
| EPI-Hi silicon detectorsfront layers that find particle direction and reduce background noise“The front few layers are composed of ultra-thin silicon detectors made up of geometric segments” | siliconsilicon | — | — |
Carbon-carbon fibre and resin, foam supplier grade, dopant identity, structure of the spacecraft body, solar-cell type, radiator tube material (titanium tubes appear only in secondary press) and insulation are not stated on the primary NASA pages read. The alumina and tungsten details come from EarthSky, which cites Johns Hopkins; the original JHU page was not retrievable. More detail: Not published on the pages read: battery chemistry and maker, reaction wheel and star tracker count and makers, flight computer, low-gain and fan-beam antenna details, high-gain antenna size and maker, propellant tank material and propellant load (DLA page with the 178 lb figure returned 403), solar cell type, and the structural materials of the bus panels. Aerojet Rocketdyne is now part of L3Harris; UTAS is now Collins Aerospace. The 12 MR-106 thrusters in the SpaceNews text are on the launcher's second stage, not on the probe. The Springer mission paper (Fox et al. 2016) and the APL spacecraft pages could not be fetched, so the bus subsystem list is shorter than it could be. More detail: The white ceramic coating on the shield is already in the entry bom (alumina); Aerospace America adds that Plasma Processes sprayed it and APL researchers made the recipe, recorded in relations only. Not published on the pages read: battery chemistry and maker, reaction wheel and star tracker count and makers, flight computer, low-gain and fan-beam antenna details, high-gain antenna size and maker, propellant tank material and propellant load (DLA page with the 178 lb figure returned 403), solar cell type, and the structural materials of the bus panels. Aerojet Rocketdyne is now part of L3Harris; UTAS is now Collins Aerospace. The 12 MR-106 thrusters in the SpaceNews text are on the launcher's second stage, not on the probe. The Springer mission paper (Fox et al. 2016) and the APL spacecraft pages could not be fetched, so the bus subsystem list is shorter than it could be.
CubeSats in a P-POD dispenser 
NASA Deployable Composite Boom Collected from public pages and documents, checked 4 Nov 2026.
