Dec. 21 (UPI) -- NASA's Parker Solar Probe is operating normally and remains on schedule for a record-setting close encounter with the Sun on Christmas Eve, mission controllers say.
All spacecraft systems on the probe are operating normally as it nears its closest point to the Sun at 3.8 million miles above the fiery solar surface, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory said in an update issued Friday.
"No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory," said Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at APL. "We're excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it swings back around the Sun."
APL, based in Laurel, Md., said it received a transmission from the probe at 7:20 p.m. EST on Friday via NASA's Deep Space Network complex in Canberra, Australia. It indicated all systems are "go" for the Christmas Eve fly-by.
NASA officials hailed the news as a potential boon to space science. In making humanity's closest-ever approach to a star, it will serve as the culmination of what NASA calls "a nearly 70-year quest to unravel the Sun's secrets."
"This is one example of NASA's bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer longstanding questions about our universe," said Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist at the agency's headquarters in Washington.
"We can't wait to receive that first status update from the spacecraft and start receiving the science data in the coming weeks," he added.
The spacecraft was launched in 2018, decades after it was first conceived. It took three years to arrive at the Sun and has traveled closer to the G-type main-sequence star than any of its predecessors.
In 2021, it flew through the Sun's upper atmosphere, the corona, and took some particle samples. The agency called it a "monumental" moment and a "giant leap for solar science."
On Nov. 6, the Parker Solar Probe completed its seventh and final Venus gravity-assist maneuver, passing within 240 miles of Venus' surface. That flyby adjusted its trajectory into the final orbital configuration of its primary mission of the upcoming close solar encounter.