Hi Chris!Solar Probe has not yet been launched. At the moment I think the planned date is somewhere near 2015. Solar Probe will be a revolutionary mission since it will fly very close to the Sun less than 10 solar radius, closer than any other spacecraft before. The spacecraft will explore the region that is extremely hot so it has to be built with a special thermal protection system to survive these hazardous conditions.
Solar Probe will make direct measurements regions extremely close to the Sun, where no such a measurements have been available before. With these new measurements scientist will study for example the origin of the solar wind, the mechanisms that produce very high energy particles from the Sun and they might help the scientist to solve the mystery of coronal heating. You can find more information from http://solarprobe.gsfc.na...larprobe_mission.htm
