Parker Solar Probe will use seven Venus flybys over nearly seven years to gradually shrink its orbit around the sun, coming as close as 3.9 million miles (6 million kilometers) to the sun, well within the orbit of Mercury and about eight times closer than any spacecraft has come before.

In orbital mechanics and aerospace engineering, a gravitational slingshot, gravity assist maneuver, or swing-by is the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically to save propellant and reduce expense. Gravity assistance can be used to accelerate a spacecraft to increase its speed. Conversely it can also be used to decrease its speed or redirect its path. The "assist" is provided by the motion of the gravitating body as it pulls on the spacecraft. For Parker Solar Probe we will use Venus to slow us down slightly and redirect its path towards the Sun