If you go within 4 million miles of the sun's surface, you need to be moving fast to achieve orbit. Otherwise the intense gravity of the sun you pull you down. The speed is to stop the probe cascading down to the surface of the sun.
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Sunday, 29 December 2024
Fastest Spacecraft
According to NASA, the fastest spacecraft ever made is the Parker solar probe going very close around the sun on a highly elliptical orbit. It is traveling 430,000 miles per hour, over a million kilometres per hour. There is a shield on it made of carbon foam that is stopping the spacecraft from melting in the sun's intense heat, but it is very close to the star.
~Image generated by artificial intelligence (chatGPT).
