Parker Solar Probe Completes Fifth Venus Flyby
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is speeding in toward the Sun after a swing past Venus on Oct. 16, 2021, successfully using the planet’s gravity to shape its path for its next closest approach to our star. Such gravity assists are essential to the mission to bring Parker Solar Probe progressively closer to the Sun; the spacecraft counts on the planet to reduce its orbital energy, which in turn allows it to travel closer to the Sun and measure the properties of the solar wind near its source. This was the fifth of seven planned Venus gravity assists. The flyby reduced Parker Solar Probe's orbital speed by about 6,040 miles per hour (9,720 kilometers per hour), and set it up for its 10th close pass (or perihelion) by the Sun, on Nov. 21, 2021. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben) >
Venus Flyby 1 (closeup)
Artist rendering of Parker Solar Probe’s first Venus flyby on October 3, 2018. The spacecraft flew approximately 1,500 miles above the surface of Venus to reduce speed and adjust its trajectory toward the Sun. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben >