Parker Solar Probe Sets Speed and Shield Milestone at Sun’s Edge
TL;DR
In December 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe flew into the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, at a record 430,000 mph, surviving thanks to a 4.5-inch carbon-carbon Thermal Protection System that kept its interior near room temperature and enabling data return on the Sun’s extreme environment while it continues its mission to study solar wind.
- In December 2024 a NASA spacecraft flew straight into the Sun's outer atmosphere at 430,000 miles per hour, the fastest any human-made object has ever moved, through a region millions of degrees hot — and survived because a 4.5-inch carbon shield kept 19FortyFive
- NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew in and out of the solar corona and found a source of high-energy particles that no existing model had predicted Space Daily
- A spacecraft travelling at Parker Solar Probe’s peak speed would reach the Moon in about 35 minutes — a trip that took Apollo 11 roughly three days Space Daily
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