Short answers, pulled from the story.
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory launched the Parker Solar Probe on the 12th of August 2018 from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft carried a plaque with names submitted by over 1.1 million people and a memory card holding photos of Eugene Newman Parker.
The Parker Solar Probe reached speeds of 191 km/s (118.7 mi/s) during its final pass in December 2024, making it the fastest human-made object ever built. This velocity is almost three times faster than Helios-2 and occurs as the craft approaches within 6.1 million kilometers of the Sun's surface.
A hexagonal heat shield measuring 11 feet in diameter and 4.5 inches thick constructed from reinforced carbon-carbon composite protects the probe. This structure withstands external temperatures reaching approximately 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit while keeping internal instruments below 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
On the 28th of April 2021, the Parker Solar Probe encountered conditions indicating it had penetrated the Alfvén surface boundary layer for the first time. NASA described this event as touching the Sun itself using FIELDS and SWEAP instruments at distances of 18.8 solar radii from the center.
The Parker Solar Probe revealed its first known sungrazing comet on the 25th of September 2022 and has since identified nineteen additional sungrazers. These discoveries were made by analyzing optical data collected during routine science phases near perihelion using the WISPR camera system.