NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is still making history as it orbits the sun, preparing to set a new record this week. The space agency says the spacecraft’s orbit will reach just 3.8 million miles from the sun’s surface at 6:53 a.m. ET on Dec. 24. That would be the closest it, or any other spacecraft, has ever come to the sun. This milestone marks the completion of Parker Solar Probe’s 22nd orbit around our star and the first of three planned final flybys. It will be. its mission. The spacecraft, launched in 2018, is scheduled to make a total of 24 orbits.
Nick Pinkin, Parker Solar Exploration Mission Operations Manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, said: “No man-made object has ever come this close to a star, so Parker will return data from truly uncharted territory.” It will happen,” he said in a statement. NASA Blog. “We look forward to hearing back from the spacecraft as it swings around the sun and returns.”
Parker Solar Probe will be traveling at about 430,000 miles per hour during its closest approach ever. It plans to ping the team to check on its health on December 27th, when it will be far enough away from the sun to be able to resume communications.
