Cape Canaveral, Florida: A NASA probe is now closer to the sun than any spacecraft has ever gotten, setting a new world record.

On Monday, the Parker Solar Probe surpassed the record of 43 million kilometres set by Helios-2 back in 1976.

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And it will keep getting closer to the sun until it flies through the corona, or outer atmosphere, for the first time next week, passing within 24 million kilometres of the solar surface.

"It’s a proud moment for the team, though we remain focused on our first solar encounter, which begins on October 31," said Andy Driesman, project manager for the probe with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in a statement.