This week, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe attempted to get closer to the Sun than any man-made object. But because of a planned communications blackout, the team behind the mission won’t know whether the spacecraft’s daring search was a success for at least another day.

On Tuesday, the Parker Solar Probe is scheduled to arrive within a uncomfortable close distance at 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) from the surface of the Sun, during which time the spacecraft would not have been in contact with mission control. According to inthe investigation is scheduled to send a beacon this Friday to verify whether or not it survived its record-breaking close encounter with the Sun.

“No man-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly return data from uncharted territory,” Nick Pinkine, Parker mission operations manager. Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a statement. “We look forward to hearing back from the spacecraft when it turns back toward the Sun.”

If successful, Tuesday’s flyby will be the first of three encounters over the same distance. During its perihelion, the spacecraft will zip past the Sun at 430,000 miles per hour, breaking its own record for the fastest any man-made object has ever traveled. At that speed, the probe could travel from Washington, DC to Philadelphia in one second. During its approach, the spacecraft must withstand hot temperatures of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (982.2 degrees Celsius), while keeping its internal temperature a cooler 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29.4 degrees Celsius). Parker does this with a heat shield several inches thick, which reflects most of the Sun’s heat.

The Parker Solar Probe was launched in August 2018 to observe our host star at an unprecedented—that is, close—distance. Since its launch, the spacecraft has been preparing for its perihelion, or closest approach, by swinging closer to the Sun in each orbit. The Parker probe made 21 close approaches to the Sun, coming within 4.51 million miles (7.26 million km) of the solar surface. In November, the Parker Solar Probe conducted it seventh and final flyby of Venuswhich uses the planet’s gravitational pull to put the spacecraft on a trajectory toward closest solar approach.

As it speeds toward the surface of the Sun, the Parker probe will collect valuable data about the star and how it influences the space environment. “This is an example of NASA’s bold missions, doing something no one else has done to answer long-standing questions about our universe,” said Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist at NASA, said in a statement. “We can’t wait to receive the first status update from the spacecraft and begin receiving science data in the coming weeks.”