![\"Venus](\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/nasa_C_638285390330446349.png\")
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NASA\u2019s Parker Solar Probe zoomed past Venus on Aug. 21, using the planet\u2019s gravity to aim toward a record-setting series of flights around the Sun that start next month. Moving approximately 15 miles (more than 24 kilometers) per second, Parker Solar Probe passed 2,487 miles (4,003 kilometers) above the Venusian surface as it curved around the planet toward the inner solar system. <\/p>\n
The mission operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, kept in contact with the spacecraft during the flyby through NASA\u2019s Deep Space Network \u2013 except for an expected 8 minutes at closest approach, when Venus was between Earth and Parker \u2013 and determined the spacecraft was on course and operating normally.<\/p>\n
\u201cParker Solar Probe remains on track to make its closest flybys yet of the Sun,\u201d said Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager from APL<\/strong>. \u201cParker\u2019s success is a tribute to the entire mission team, but I\u2019m especially proud of the mission operators and the job they\u2019ve done over the past five years to ensure the flawless operation of this incredible, history-making spacecraft.\u201d<\/p>\n Venus gravity assists are essential to guiding Parker Solar Probe progressively closer to the Sun; the spacecraft relies on the planet to reduce its orbital energy, which in turn allows it to travel closer to the Sun \u2013 where, since 2018, it has been exploring the origins and unlocking the secrets of the solar wind and other properties of the near-Sun environment at their source.<\/p>\n This was the Parker mission\u2019s sixth of seven planned Venus gravity assists. This week\u2019s flyby served as an orbit maneuver applying a velocity change \u2013 called \u201cdelta-V\u201d \u2013 on Parker Solar Probe, reducing its orbital speed by about 5,932 miles per hour (9,547 kilometers per hour). The maneuver changed the spacecraft\u2019s orbit and set Parker Solar Probe up for its next five close passes by the Sun, the first of which occurs on Sept. 27. On each close approach (known as perihelion), Parker Solar Probe will set or match its own speed and distance records when it comes to within just 4.5 million miles (7.3 million kilometers) from the solar surface, while moving close to 394,800 miles per hour.<\/p>\n Parker Solar Probe was developed as part of NASA\u2019s Living With a Star program to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. The Living With a Star program is managed by the agency\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed, built, and operates the spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/nasa_3_638285396490911383.jpg\")
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