Parker Solar Probe Completes 21st Close Approach to the Sun

Next Stop: Venus

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.

The close approach (known as perihelion) occurred at 5:15 UTC - or 12:15 a.m. EDT - with Parker Solar Probe moving 394,700 miles per hour (635,300 kilometers per hour) around the Sun, again matching its own record. The spacecraft checked in on Oct. 3 with mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland - where the spacecraft was also designed and built - with a beacon tone indicating it was in good health and all systems were operating normally.

Parker Solar Probe's 21st orbit included a perihelion that brought the spacecraft within 4.51 million miles of the Sun. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

Perihelion marked the midpoint in the mission's 21st solar encounter, which began Sept. 25 and runs through Oct. 5.

This week's close approach marked the last time Parker will fly around the Sun at this distance and speed before it makes the first of its three final, closest approaches of its primary mission on Dec. 24. At that point, with its orbit shaped by the mission's final Venus gravity assist-flyby on Nov. 6, the spacecraft will zip just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface, moving about 430,000 miles per hour.

By Michael Buckley
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

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