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Japan says 'human error' to blame for loss of multi-million pound satellite studying black holes
Japan's space agency has admitted that human error was to blame for the failure of a £251 million satellite launched in February to study black holes and the origins of the universe.
The state-of-the-art satellite, named Hitomi, the Japanese word for eye, was designed to locate previously unknown galaxy clusters and X-rays emanating from black holes.
Much of the equipment aboard the craft had been provided by NASA.
Within a month of the satellite reaching orbit, contact was lost as it was being manoeuvered into position to examine an active galaxy cluster.
Scientists from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency initially speculated that the craft had suffered an explosion or a collision. Images transmitted to Earth shortly before communications ceased showed debris floating around the satellite.
A subsequent investigation has concluded that a glitch in the craft's computer software and a message mistakenly sent by ground engineers fired an engine at the wrong time, putting the satellite into a rapid rotation.
That spinning motion appears to have caused the solar panels that gathered power for the instruments to have broken off.
"We deeply apologise to the public, institutions at home and abroad and astronomers who have supported [the programme] and pinned their hopes on observations", Dr Saku Tsuneta, vice president of JAXA, told a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday.
Dr Tsuneta said the agency had done everything in its power to regain control of the satellite but that the craft is showing no signs of responding.
"We have concluded that the satellite is in a state in which its functions are not expected to recover", he said.
"There was a human error, but in a critical system such as this we have to imagine that humans make errors," he said.
"So rather than thinking of this as an error by a human, we believe that there is a problem in the system".
Dr Tsuneta said Japan does not have the capability to launch a another black hole observation satellite for at least 12 years, while a craft with similar tasks is due to be launched by the European Space Agency in 2028.
Hitomi is expected to gradually lose altitude and eventually burn up as it returns to Earth's atmosphere in about 20 years' time, Kyodo News reported.