Whats the fastest we can currently go in space?

Answer 1

Here is the definitive answer:

NASA launched the New Horizons probe on 19 January 2006 to take humanity's first close-up look at Pluto and its moon Charon. Following its visit to the Pluto system in 2015, New Horizons may also be redirected to visit other icy objects within the Kuiper Belt. The probe's trajectory will then take it out of the solar system to become only the fifth interstellar spacecraft launched to date.

As the New Horizons launch approached, many news reports hailed the new probe as the fastest spacecraft ever. However, that is not quite correct. We have previously written about two vehicles called Helios launched to study the Sun during the 1970s. Both of these probes attained maximum speeds of around 150,000 mph (250,000 km/h) at closest approach to the Sun in their highly elliptical orbits. Helios 2 was slightly faster than its twin craft, and this probe still holds the speed record as not only the fastest spacecraft but also the fastest manmade object in history.

New Horizons does hold a speed record of its own, however, but it is much more specific than simply the "fastest spacecraft." New Horizons is instead the fastest spacecraft launched from Earth to date. In other words, New Horizons was traveling faster as it left Earth orbit than any previous vehicle launched into interplanetary space. New Horizons attained an escape velocity of about 35,800 mph (57,600 km/h) as it departed Earth orbit. This speed is so fast that the probe reached the distance of the Moon in only nine hours (compared to three days for the Apollo missions) and will reach Jupiter in just 13 months. Previous holders of this speed record included the European/NASA probe Ulysses, designed to study the Sun, that was launched at 34,450 mph (55,400 km/h) in 1990 and NASA's Pioneer 10 launched to Jupiter at 32,400 mph (52,100 km/h) in 1972.

ZOOM!

Answer 2

It depends on where you measure the speed from. Apollo left Earth at 25,000 MPH to go to the Moon. The New Horizons space craft left Earth at something like 36,000 MPH to go to Pluto. But Earth is orbiting the Sun at 66,000 MPH and the Sun is orbiting the galaxy at millions of miles per hour. So Apollo either went 25,000 MPH or 91,000 MPH or millions of MPH, depending on whether you measure it from Earth, the Sun or the center of the galaxy. Most people would say only the 25,000 MPH supplied by the rocket counts, and I agree. So the fastest is the recent New Horizons Pluto mission, at 36,260.

Answer 3

The fastest a probe has gone is about 150,000 miles per hour by the Helios probe.

Answer 4

The mission to Pluto is doing about 40,000 mph. That's the fastest so far.

Answer 5

So far the fastest we've gone is about 45,000 mph (..Apollo missions to the moon..)

Answer 6

using a telescope such as the Hubble - we travel in space in the optic frequency range at the speed of light