2023-07-04 09:30:20
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched on August 12, 2018 to get closer to the Sun like no other spacecraft, achieved a new milestone on June 27: its 16th orbit around our star.
This included a close encounter with the Sun (known as perihelion) on June 22, where the spacecraft came within 8.5 million kilometers of the solar surface while moving at 586,782 kilometers per hour. The spacecraft emerged from the solar flyby healthy and operating normally, NASA reports.
Ahead, on August 21, Parker will pass by Venus for its sixth flyby of the planet. To prepare for a smooth course, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) mission team applied a small course correction maneuver on June 7, the first course correction since March 2022. This flyby will be the sixth of seven planned flybys of Venus during Parker’s primary mission.
Parker uses Venus’ gravity to narrow its orbit around the Sun and establish a future perihelion just 7.2 million kilometers from the Sun’s surface. As the Sun becomes increasingly active, this perihelion will be especially important for learn more about heliophysics.
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