NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made its closest approach to the Sun on record and began receiving the first telemetry, or housekeeping, data at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland on January 1. This is the first time a spacecraft has come this close to our star.

The latest telemetry transmission confirms that the Parker Solar Probe successfully executed commands programmed into its flight computers and that its science instruments operated during flight. That means the spacecraft collected valuable data about our star as it sped up to 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the Sun’s surface.

The Parker Solar Probe is equipped with a 4.5-inch-thick (11.4-centimeter-thick) heat shield, and NASA has confirmed that it can withstand temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982 degrees Celsius).

The spacecraft is scheduled for two more flybys in 2025 at approximately the same speed and distance from the Sun on March 22 and June 19.