Operations teams have confirmed NASA's mission to "touch" the sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.

NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe. Now, six and a half years later, the probe has traveled about 90 million miles to get closer to the sun than any man-made object in history. Here's how the mission data will help NASA.

The probe was launched in 2018 and first entered the solar atmosphere in 2021. Its latest achievement comes six months after the probe completed its 20th close approach to the sun, coming about 4.51 million miles from the solar surface and moving at about 394,736 miles per hour in June.