11. Has anyone been closer in distance to the Sun than we are on Earth? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

Human beings have only ventured out as far as the Moon, which is about 250,000 miles from the Earth. The Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) lies in a special orbit about one million miles from Earth. The Magellan spacecraft that orbited Venus got into an orbit that brought it closer to the Sun than any other NASA spacecraft- 76 million miles. In 2011, the Messenger spacecraft launched by NASA will achieve the distinction of the closest spacecraft to the Sun when it goes into orbit around the planet Mercury at 36 million miles from the Sun.

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Answer provided by Jim Zebrowski

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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