NASA's Parker Uses Gravity's Drag -- 1,870 Miles Above Venus -- To Tighten Its Solar Orbital Loop Shape...

The night after Christmas (while all good children were sleeping), Parker executed a second close dip, around Venus, to slow its speed, relatively speaking, as percieved from the surface of the Sun, and thus cause a tighter pass -- as it bends around the Sun, with a closet approach on January 29 -- this time around, at least.

Parker will conduct iterative versions of this Venus dip, five more times -- until it has perfected its closest safe orbit, around our Sun. Here's a bit from NASA, as of Boxing Day evening:

. . . .On Dec. 26, Parker Solar Probe successfully completed its second flyby of Venus. The spacecraft used Venus to slow itself down, approaching the planet at a distance of about 1,870 miles from Venus’s surface during the second gravity assist of the mission. This gravity assist maneuver adjusted Parker Solar Probe’s trajectory to set it up for its fourth orbit around the Sun, or perihelion, which will occur on January 29, 2020.

The flight operations team will use the data collected during the recent flyby to make adjustments for the remaining five Venus gravity assists which will occur over the course of the seven-year mission. . . .

It seems we must veer off-planet, to avoid the odious Trump-led assaults on real space science. His "space force" [no caps] is a sad and expensive joke. Here endeth the lesson. Be excellent -- in every way -- in the new decade. . . . Onward.

नमस्ते