NEW YORK - A NASA spacecraft is preparing for another close encounter with the sun, marking the second of three planned passes through the sun's intensely hot atmosphere.
The Parker Solar Probe previously achieved a record-breaking feat in December, venturing within 3.8 million miles (6 million kilometers) of the sun's surface. This was the closest any human-made object had ever approached the sun.
The spacecraft is scheduled to repeat this daring maneuver on Saturday. Due to the flyby occurring outside of communication range, the mission team anticipates receiving data from Parker on Tuesday afternoon.
As the fastest spacecraft ever built, Parker is expected to reach speeds of 430,000 mph (690,000 kph) at its closest approach to the sun.
Launched in 2018 with the mission of studying the sun up close, Parker has already traversed the sun's corona, its outermost atmospheric layer.
Scientists are hopeful that data collected by Parker will provide insights into why the sun's corona is significantly hotter than its surface and the mechanisms that drive the solar wind, the continuous stream of charged particles emitted by the sun.