Parker Solar Probe has to complete 24 planned orbits of the Sun, however it has completed its first orbits on January 19, 2019 and started its second perihelion which is going to be happened on 4th April, 2019.
The probe has entered into Phase E on 1st January and its all systems are working perfectly as designed by NASA scientists. The instruments of Parker Solar Probe has already started sending data collected during its first orbit of the Sun to Earth through the Deep Space Network. The complete dataset of the first orbit of the Sun will be available by April, though more than 17 gigabits of data for experiment has been received.
“It’s been an illuminating and fascinating first orbit,” said Parker Solar Probe Project Manager Andy Driesman, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “We’ve learned a lot about how the spacecraft operates and reacts to the solar environment, and I’m proud to say the team’s projections have been very accurate.” APL designed, built, and manages the mission for NASA.
Source: https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2019/01/28/all-systems-go-as-parker-solar-probe-begins-second-sun-orbit/
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