Fastest interplanetary journey
- Who
- Parker Solar Probe, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
- What
- 52:1:13 day(s):hour(s):minute(s)
- Where
- Not Applicable
- When
- 03 October 2018
The fastest interplanetary journey was made by the Parker Solar Probe (USA), which travelled from Earth to Venus in 52 days 1 hours 13 minutes. The unmanned spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA, on 12 August 2018 at 03:31:00 EDT (07:31:00 UTC), and made its closest approach to Venus on 3 October 2018 at 04:44:28 EDT (08:44:28 UTC), passing at 2,429 km (1,509 miles) from the planet’s surface for a gravity-assist manoeuvre on its journey to the Sun.
The Parker Solar Probe is on a mission that will see it pass through the Sun's corona, providing researchers with a more detailed view of the sun's behaviour than ever seen before. Its rendezvous with Venus was carried out in order to drain some of the spacecraft's speed and pull its orbit closer to the sun. It will repeat this manoeuvre six more times over the next seven years, losing a little more speed each time. The fastest mission to Venus before the Parker Solar Probe was the Soviet Venera 1 probe, which took 97 days to reach the planet in 1961.