
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has declared its spacecraft Parker Solar Probe as “safe” after making a historic closest-ever flyby of the sun on Christmas Eve.
On December 24, the flyby marked the final trial, achieving the closest approach to the Sun ever made by a human-made object.
The Parker Solar Probe travelled through the sun's outer atmosphere at a distance of 3.8 million miles.
During the flyby, the Parker Solar Probe flew at a speed of 430,000 mph, studying the sun's corona, its super-hot outer atmosphere, to gain insights into solar phenomena.
According to NASA, the operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland received the signal from the spacecraft on Thursday.
However, it is expected to send detailed telemetry data about its status on January 1, 2025.
Originally launched in 2018, the spacecraft has made a series of increasingly close approaches to the sun, as well as seven flybys of Venus, as part of its mission.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe’s next flyby
The Parker Solar Probe is expected to make its next flyby on March 22, 2025, as well as on June 19, 2025.