50 Years Ago Space

50 years ago, scientists were gearing up to hurl a probe at the sun

Excerpt from the July 6, 1974 issue of Science News

An illustration of the NASA Parker Solar Probe getting close to the sun

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (upper right in this illustration) is the first spacecraft to have touched the sun’s corona (wavy red grid) and lived to tell the tale.

Ben Smith/NASA, JHUAPL

By Cassie Martin

Putting the heat to Helios — Science News, July 6, 1974
Helios, a space probe scheduled to go closer to the sun than any other manmade object ever launched, has successfully survived a ground test that exposed it to temperatures believed to be as high as any it will face during its mission….