On a clear, muggy night at Cape Canaveral, with the occasional shooting star from the Perseids meteor shower streaking overhead, Parker watched from NASA’s viewing terrace along with three generations of his family. Cheers and applause erupted as the rocket climbed into the sky, and minutes later, shed its booster engines in a flare of light.

After officials announced the spacecraft was safely on its way, the company hugged, shook hands and took celebratory sips of Parker Solar Pale Ale, made in honor of the occasion by local company Crystal Lake Brewing.

It was a humbling moment for Parker, who was attending his first NASA launch.

“It’s a bit like the Taj Mahal. We’ve all seen pictures of the building and what a graceful structure it is, but ... video and paintings and so forth don’t quite catch it somehow,” Parker said. “It’s in a different state when you’re looking at the real thing.”

NASA said the honor befits the magnitude of Parker’s contributions to science. Parker’s revolutionary scientific career began with his 1958 proposal of the “solar wind,” which radically changed scientists’ understandings of the solar system.

He suggested, and later NASA missions confirmed, that the sun radiates an intense stream of charged particles that travel throughout the solar system at supersonic speeds. This is visible as the halo around the sun during an eclipse, and it can affect missions in space as well as satellite communication systems on Earth.

The discovery reshaped our view of space, stars and their surroundings. It also established a new field of astrophysics, leading NASA last year to name its newest and most ambitious mission to the sun after Parker as a tribute to his work.

“We're so excited and proud that Eugene Parker’s namesake mission, the Parker Solar Probe, launched this morning,” said Angela Olinto, dean of the Division of the Physical Sciences at UChicago. “By first proposing the concept of the solar wind in 1958, Parker revolutionized our understanding of the solar system, and we eagerly await data from this mission that will help us continue to unravel the mysteries of our universe.”