On March 26, 2022, the joint European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft successfully completed its first close pass through the Sun’s corona, bringing the spacecraft’s specially-designed collection of instruments closer to the Sun than ever before.
During the close pass, called perihelion, all ten of Solar Orbiter’s instruments operated simultaneously, working together to gather important, never-before-seen data. The flyby brought Solar Orbiter less than one-third of the distance from the Sun to the Earth.