NASA probe’safe’ after making the closest ever approach to the Sun

The spacecraft passed just 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) from the solar surface on December 24, flying into the sun’s outer atmosphere known as the corona, on a mission to help scientists learn more about Earth’s closest star. During this closest approach, known as perihelion, mission teams lost direct contact with Parker, relying on a “beacon tone” to confirm the spacecraft’s status. The agency said the operations team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland received the signal from the probe just before midnight on Thursday. The spacecraft is expected to send detailed telemetry data after successfully completing the closest approach to the Sun by any human-made object.