December 27, 2024
Description
NASA has now reached a new milestone, as a spacecraft made history by surviving the closest-ever approach to the Sun. Scientists received a signal from the Parker Solar Probe late on December 27th, 2024 (12 am EST), after days of silence during its scorching fly-by. NASA reported the probe was safe and operating normally after coming within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) of the Sun’s surface.
Parker Solar Probe launched aboard a Delta IV-Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Aug. 12, 2018.
| Nation | United States of America (USA) |
| Objective(s) | Solar Orbit |
| Spacecraft | Parker Solar Probe (Solar Probe Plus) |
| Spacecraft Mass | 1,510 pounds (685 kilograms) at launch |
| Mission Design and Management | NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory |
| Launch Vehicle | Delta IV-Heavy with Upper Stage |
| Launch Date and Time | Aug. 12, 2018 / 7:31 UTC) |
| Launch Site | Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. |
| Scientific Instruments | 1. Fields Experiment (FIELDS) 2. Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS☉IS ) 3. Wide Field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) 4. Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons (SWEAP) |
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial — Share Alike
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