The Fastest Spacecraft Right Now
Every tracked deep-space mission ranked by its speed right now, relative to the Sun, updated every 15 minutes. The all-time record is Parker Solar Probe, at about 692,000 km/h (430,000 mph) near the Sun.
Speeds are relative to the Sun, refreshed every 15 minutes. A spacecraft’s speed varies constantly — it accelerates falling toward the Sun and slows climbing away — so this ranking shifts over time.
Why is Parker Solar Probe the fastest?
The Parker Solar Probe holds the record for the fastest human-made object ever built, exceeding 690,000 km/h at its closest approaches to the Sun. It reaches these speeds not with a powerful engine but with gravity: as it falls deep into the Sun’s gravity well at perihelion, that potential energy converts into enormous velocity — the same reason a dropped object speeds up as it falls.
By contrast, the Voyager probes are the fastest objects leaving the solar system, but their cruising speed of around 60,000 km/h is far slower than a solar-diving probe at perihelion. The order of this list therefore changes constantly as the Sun-divers swing in and out and cruising probes hold steady.