Helios

Helios, either of two unmanned solar probes developed by West Germany in cooperation with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Helios 1 and Helios 2 were launched by NASA from the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Dec. 10, 1974, and Jan. 15, 1976, respectively. Both traveled closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft: Helios 1 passed within 45 million km (28 million miles) and Helios 2 within 43.4 million km. Equipped with special heat-dispersal systems, the probes were able to withstand extremely high temperatures, which reached an estimated 700 °F (370 °C). Both returned useful data about the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar wind, the relative strength of cosmic rays, and measurements of meteoroid loss from the solar system.