Parker Solar Probe

https://www.technology.org/2018/10/06/parker-solar-probe-changed-the-game-before-it-even-launched/

On Oct. 3, 2018, Parker Solar Probe performed the first significant celestial maneuver of its seven-year mission. As the orbits of the spacecraft and Venus converged toward the same point, Parker Solar Probe slipped in front of the planet, allowing Venus’ gravity — relatively small by celestial standards — to twist its path and change its speed. This maneuver, called a gravity assist, reduced Parker’s speed relative to the Sun by 10 percent — amounting to 7,000 miles per hour — drawing the closest point of its orbit, called perihelion, nearer to the star by 4 million miles.

Performed six more times over the course of the seven-year mission, these gravity assists will eventually bring Parker Solar Probe’s closest approach to a record 3.83 million miles from the Sun’s surface — about a seventh the distance of the current record-holder, Helios 2, which achieved a pass of 27 million miles from the Sun in 1976. Even before its closest approach, Parker Solar Probe is expected to overtake this record and become the closest human-made object to the Sun in late October 2018.

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