The Parker Solar Probe survived its approach to the sun and will make two more in 2025

NASA announced Friday that it had received a signal from the Parker Solar Probe confirming that the spacecraft had survived its closest approach to the sun. The approach took it just 3.8 million miles from the surface, passing into the Sun’s corona and enabling unprecedented data collection close to a star. A few million miles may seem like quite a distance, but to put things into perspective, explains, “If the solar system were shrunk by the distance between the sun and Earth, the length of a football field, the Parker Solar Probe would be just four yards from the end zone.”

The probe’s current orbit takes it closest to the sun every three months. It will circle back for two more close flybys in 2025, on March 22 and June 19. The probe is expected to transmit data from its last close approach soon after it is in a better place to do so. “The data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been,” said Joe Westlake, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “It’s an incredible achievement.”