The solar probe "alive" after being closer to Sun: NASA

Parker Solar Probe, NASA's historic mission to solve the mysteries of the sun, is alive and well after flying over the sun just 15 million kilometers from its surface.

It is much closer than any other spaceship – the previous record was set by Helios B in 1976 and broken by Parker on October 29 – and this maneuver exposed the spacecraft to intense heat and to solar radiation in a complex solar environment, said NASA in a statement Thursday.

On November 5, the spacecraft made its closest approach, called perihelion. The Parker solar sensor reached a top speed of 213,200 miles at the time, setting a new speed record for spacecraft.

At this distance, intense sunlight heated the heat shield side of the probe, called the sun-facing thermal protection system, to about 820 degrees Fahrenheit.

This temperature will increase to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit as the spacecraft approaches the Sun, NASA said.

"The Solar Parker solar probe was designed to take care of itself and its valuable payload during this close-up approach, without any control from us on Earth – and we now know that it has succeeded," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission. Direction to Washington.

On November 7, the mission controllers of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory received the probe status tag at 4:46 pm. (IS).

The beacon indicated status "A" – the best of four possible status signals, which means that Parker Solar Probe works well with all instruments operating and collecting scientific data. If there were minor problems, they were solved autonomously by the spacecraft.

"Parker is the culmination of six decades of scientific progress.We have just realized the first visit of humanity to our star, which will have implications not only on Earth, but also for an understanding deeper in our universe, "added Zurbuchen. .

Parker Solar Probe's first phase of solar encounter began on October 31, and the probe will continue to collect scientific data until the end of the solar encounter phase on November 11. It will be several weeks after the end of the solar encounter phase the scientific data begin to be brought back to Earth.

The probe will repeatedly beat its own speed record as its orbit approaches the star and it moves faster and faster to perihelion, NASA said.