The Parker Solar Probe survived two approaches to the sun and will make two more in 2025

NASA said on Friday it had received a signal from the Parker Solar Probe confirming that the spacecraft had survived its closest flyby to the sun. The approach spanned 3.8 million miles from the surface, passing through the middle of the sun and allowing for unprecedented data collection from a star-closer. A few million miles may seem like a great distance, but to put things into perspective, NASA explains, “If the solar system were reduced to the distance between the sun and Earth the length of a football field, the Parker Solar Probe would be just four meters from the end point.”

The probe’s current orbit brings it closer to the sun about every three months. It will return for two more close flybys in 2025, on March 22 and June 19. The probe is expected to transmit data from its latest approach soon, once it is in a better position to do so. “The data that will come from space will be new information about places that we, as humans, have never been,” said Joe Westlake, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA headquarters. “It’s an incredible achievement.”