Japan writes off ADEOS spacecraft
Posted: Fri, Oct 31, 2003, 7:39 PM ET (0039 GMT)
The Japanese space agency JAXA announced Friday that it has declared the ADOES-2 spacecraft a total loss after losing contact with it for nearly a week. Communications with the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite 2, also known as Midori-2, were lost on October 25 and never regained. In a statement Friday, JAXA said that while it will continue efforts to restore communications, the odds that the Earth-observing spacecraft could resume normal operations was "extremely slim". A solar storm last weekend, similar to stronger ones that struck the Earth earlier this week, may have caused the spacecraft to fail, but no definitive reason for the failure has yet been released. Another Japanese spacecraft, Kodama, shut down earlier in the week during another solar storm, and efforts to restore contact with it continue. ADEOS-2 was launched into Sun-synchronous orbit in December 2002 on a Japanese H-2A rocket. The $587-million spacecraft was intended to study the Earth's environment for five years. Its predecessor, ADEOS, was lost because of a solar panel malfunction in 1997.
The Japanese space agency JAXA announced Friday that it has declared the ADOES-2 spacecraft a total loss after losing contact with it for nearly a week. Communications with the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite 2, also known as Midori-2, were lost on October 25 and never regained. In a statement Friday, JAXA said that while it will continue efforts to restore communications, the odds that the Earth-observing spacecraft could resume normal operations was "extremely slim". A solar storm last weekend, similar to stronger ones that struck the Earth earlier this week, may have caused the spacecraft to fail, but no definitive reason for the failure has yet been released. Another Japanese spacecraft, Kodama, shut down earlier in the week during another solar storm, and efforts to restore contact with it continue. ADEOS-2 was launched into Sun-synchronous orbit in December 2002 on a Japanese H-2A rocket. The $587-million spacecraft was intended to study the Earth's environment for five years. Its predecessor, ADEOS, was lost because of a solar panel malfunction in 1997.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
NASA releases report on Starliner crewed test flight problems
Posted: Sun, Feb 22 11:45 AM ET (1645 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Monday, February 23
The space race is being rewritten by AI – and Europe risks falling behind
EU-Startups — 5:38 am ET (1038 GMT) Space Solar Power Will Inevitably Trump Trump’s War On Solar Power
CleanTechnica — 5:34 am ET (1034 GMT) Foushee outlines space policy at Duke amid competitive primary election
Duke Univ. Chronicle — 5:32 am ET (1032 GMT) How the free market can free NASA from the Space Launch System
The Hill — 5:28 am ET (1028 GMT) ESA Awards Contracts for Lunar Remote Camp Studies
European Spaceflight — 5:26 am ET (1026 GMT) |
