NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is in good health and operating normally as it speeds toward its closest-ever flight around the Sun on Christmas Eve.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is in good health and operating normally as it speeds toward its closest-ever flight around the Sun on Christmas Eve.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 21st close approach to the Sun on Sept. 30, equaling its own distance record by coming within about 4.51 million miles (7.26 million kilometers) of the solar surface.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe executed a short maneuver on Aug. 26 that kept the spacecraft on course for the mission’s seventh and final planned Venus flyby on Nov. 6.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 20th close approach to the Sun on June 30, 2024.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its 19th close approach to the Sun on March 30,.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its 18th close approach to the Sun on Dec. 28, 2023.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its 17th close approach to the Sun on Sept. 27, 2023.

Parker's journey through the CME is helping to prove a 20-year-old theory about the interaction of CMEs with interplanetary dust, with implications for space weather predictions.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe zoomed past Venus on Aug. 21, using the planet's gravity to aim toward a record-setting series of flights around the Sun that start next month.