NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has achieved a historic milestone by completing its 25th close flyby of the Sun, reaching a staggering speed of 687,000 kilometres per hour. During this latest flyby, which occurred between September 10 and 20, the probe could theoretically travel from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in just 19 seconds.
Launched in 2018, Parker is part of NASA’s Living With a Star program, which studies aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly impact life and society. This record-breaking speed marks the fourth time the spacecraft has reached such extreme velocities, with previous instances on December 24, 2024, March 22, 2025, and June 19, 2025.
The probe continues to orbit closer to the Sun’s surface than any spacecraft before it, with a maximum speed approaching 700,000 km/h—fast enough to travel from Philadelphia to Washington, DC in just one second. Its four scientific instrument packages are currently collecting unique data from the Sun’s corona, providing critical insights into solar wind and solar activity during a more active phase of the Sun’s 11-year cycle.
“The flyby, as the fourth at this distance and speed, is allowing the spacecraft to conduct unrivalled measurements of the solar wind and solar activity,” NASA reported. The space agency added that Parker’s observations of solar events such as flares and coronal mass ejections are vital to understanding high-energy space weather, which can affect astronauts, satellites, air travel, and power grids on Earth.
NASA will begin returning scientific data from this encounter on September 23, offering new insights into the dynamics of the Sun. The spacecraft was designed and built at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
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