Journey to the Sun: NASA's Parker Solar Probe Reaches Milestone 16th Orbit

Parker Solar Probe: 

On June 27, 2023, NASA's Parker Solar Probe completed its 16th circle of the Sun, marking an important milestone. This includes a close approach to the Sun (perihelion) on June 22, 2023, when the spacecraft traveled at a speed of 364,610 miles per hour and approached within 5.3 million miles of the solar surface. The spacecraft survived the solar flyby and is now in good condition.

The Parker Solar Probe will pass Venus for the sixth time on August 21, 2023. The first course correction since March 2022 was carried out on June 7, 2023, by the mission team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) to ensure a smooth course. The sixth of a total of seven flybys of Venus are scheduled during Parker's primary mission. Parker adjusts Venus' orbit around the Sun using gravity, resulting in a future perihelion that is only 4.5 million miles from the Sun's surface. This perihelion will be particularly crucial for understanding heliophysics as the Sun becomes more active.

Extreme temperatures, intense solar radiation, strong gravity pulls, and communication lags make it challenging to go close to the Sun. To meet these issues, protective measures, cutting-edge engineering, and specialized technologies are required. The Parker Solar Probe is a spacecraft made to observe the Sun closely and collect important scientific data to improve our knowledge of the Sun and its effects on our world.

In order to investigate features of the Sun-Earth system that directly impact life and society, NASA's Living With a Star initiative led to the creation of the Parker Solar Probe. For NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, oversees the Living With a Star initiative. For NASA, APL developed, constructed, and managed the spacecraft as well as the mission.