NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is still zipping around the history-making sun, and it’s gearing up for another record-setting approach this week. On December 24 at 6:53AM ET, the spacecraft’s orbit will pass just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, according to the space agency. That’s the closest it – or any other probe – has come to the sun. The milestone will mark the completion of Parker Solar Probe’s 22nd orbit around our star, and the first of three closest flybys planned for its mission. The craft, launched in 2018, is expected to complete a total of 24 orbits.
“No man-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly return data from uncharted territory,” Nick Pinkine, Parker mission operations manager. Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a statement NASA blog. “We look forward to hearing back from the spacecraft when it turns back to the Sun.”
The Parker Solar Probe will travel at about 430,000 miles per hour during its closest approach. It will ping the team to confirm its health on December 27, when it is too late in the day to resume communication.







