"We are basically almost landing on a star." Today, NASA's Parker Solar Probe will complete its seventh swing past Venus — the spacecraft's final maneuver around the amber planet — in a flyby that will nudge the probe on a trajectory that will take it within 3.

Before that, the record was held by the Helios 2 spacecraft, which came about 27 million miles from the sun in 1976. NASA illustration of the Parker Solar Probe (main) and NASA image of Venus taken by the Mariner 10 spacecraft (inset). Parker will image ...

NASA is gearing up for its Parker Solar Probe to do a final flyby of Venus on Wednesday on its way to make a record-breaking attempt to get close to the sun.