In a groundbreaking first, the Parker Solar Probe has successfully completed its closest encounter with the Sun. So where does this plucky probe go from here?
NASA's 2024 started with a crash that brought an abrupt end to one of its most remarkable missions of recent years.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe has reestablished contact with Earth, confirming that it survived Tuesday's closest-ever approach to the sun.
NASA administrators are also accountable to elected officials. Administrators are appointed by the president but must be confirmed by the Senate. Congress has a great deal to say about the budget that NASA gets each year. They also must authorize major programs, like the Artemis program, which aims to return the U.S. and its partners to the moon.
On the heels of a NASA spacecraft's historic close flyby of the sun on Christmas Eve, scientists on Earth have one question on their minds: Did their probe survive as an epic Christmas gift, or is it a burned up lump of coal in space?
The transition team has been grappling with an agency that has a superfluity of field centers—ten spread across the United States, as well as a formal headquarters in Washington, DC—and large, slow-moving programs that cost a lot of money and have been slow to deliver results.
Let's set the record straight: NASA has not found a parallel universe. The claims making the rounds on social media are not based on new scientific findings but are instead a distorted interpretation of older research.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made its closest approach to the sun early Tuesday, getting within just 4% of the Earth-sun distance — a feat compared to the '69 moon landing.
According to the US Space Agency, the probe came within 3.8 million miles of the Sun's surface, while moving at 430,000 miles per hour.
This array of missions from NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin and partners for 2025 reflects a busy year—and a dynamic and collaborative era in space exploration.
NASA said on Friday that its Parker Solar Probe was "safe" and operating normally after successfully completing the closest-ever approach to the Sun by any human-made object.