NASA's Parker Solar Probe has flown straight through the Sun's outer atmosphere at more than 690,000 kilometres per hour—the fastest any object built by human hands has ever moved, quick enough to cross from New York to Tokyo in under a minute. - Space Daily

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has again pushed the limits of spaceflight, racing through the Sun’s outer atmosphere at about 692,000 kilometres per hour. That pace makes it the fastest object ever built by humans, according to the mission update.

The record-setting pass came during the spacecraft’s 28th close approach to the Sun on 8 June 2026. During that flyby, the probe moved through the corona, the superheated outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, at roughly 430,000 miles per hour.

The speed is so extreme that it helps explain the scale of the achievement in familiar terms. At that velocity, a craft could travel from New York to Tokyo in less than a minute, or circle the globe in only a few minutes, underscoring how unusual Parker Solar Probe’s environment and performance are.

By flying directly through the Sun’s corona, the spacecraft is operating in one of the harshest regions ever explored by a human-made machine. This latest pass highlights both the probe’s continued close encounters with the Sun and the remarkable speeds required to study our star from so near its surface.