NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will fly closer to the sun than ever before on Christmas Eve

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is still orbiting the sun making history, and it’s gearing up for another recording session this week. On December 24 at 6:53AM ET, the spacecraft’s orbit will take it 3.8 million miles from the sun’s surface, according to the space agency. That will be the closest — or any other probe — ever to the sun. The milestone will mark the completion of the Parker Solar Probe’s 22nd orbit around our star, and the first of three final close flybys planned for its mission. The craft, launched in 2018, is expected to complete 24 orbits.

“No man-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will be returning data to an unknown location,” said Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in a NASA statement. blog. “We’re excited to hear from space as it orbits back closer to the Sun.”

The Parker Solar Probe will be traveling about 430,000 kilometers per hour during its closest pass. It will ask the team to confirm its health on December 27, when it will be far enough from the sun to resume communication.