NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which set a record for approaching the Sun on December 24, flew next to it at a distance of only 6.1 million km from the surface of the star, began transmitting data.
Image source: NASA / JOHNS HOPKINS APL / STEVE GRIBBEN
On January 1, the mission control center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) in Maryland, which oversees the Parker Solar Probe mission, began receiving the first telemetry data from the probe, which confirms that the spacecraft’s systems and scientific instruments are “operational and functioning normally” after its historic approach to the Sun, NASA reported on Thursday, January 2, on its website.
«Everything looks good with the space probe’s systems and instrumentation,” Michael Buckley, a JHUAPL spokesman, told Space.com in an email. “This is truly a wonderful spacecraft!” he noted.
The latest telemetry transmission also confirms that Parker Solar Probe successfully completed the commands programmed into its onboard computers and that its science instruments were functioning during its flyby of the Sun. This means the spacecraft collected valuable data about our star as it came to the closest distance to the Sun that a spacecraft has ever reached.
«Although Parker Solar Probe was closer to the Sun than any other man-made object in history, it functioned exactly as intended and made observations that no one had been able to make before,” said Helene Winters, manager Parker Solar Probe mission program from JHUAPL.