boogabooga
Bug Crusher
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Scientists and engineers in Japan are scrambling to save a satellite and more than a quarter of a billion dollars of investment tumbling out of control in space.
Japan's space agency had said it will abandon efforts to restore or retrieve the ASTRO-H satellite.
Also called Hitomi, the satellite was launched in 17 February to observe X-rays coming from black holes.
Sounds like windoze.....when the spacecraft entered safe mode
Sounds like windoze..
Like some network 'engineers'.. I wonder why they don't have a terrestrial duplicate control system to do a test run first - only makes sense
A doomed Japanese satellite managed to capture a view of a galaxy cluster 250 million light years away just before it died, scientists have revealed.
Launched in February, the Hitomi X-ray satellite began tumbling out of control in March when contact was finally lost.
Just before its demise, scientists managed to extract data measuring X-ray activity in the Perseus galaxy cluster.
JAXA leadership is now talking about building a copy of Hitomi that could launch around the end of the decade. “JAXA has announced their intent to study a rebuild of Hitomi,” Hertz said, referring to that new spacecraft as ASTRO-H2. NASA, he said, is now studying developing a “build-to-print” version of the SXS for that new spacecraft.
JAXA has not formally agreed to develop ASTRO-H2, but the agency is seeking government approval as soon as possible. “They’re asking for permission to reprogram money in their current fiscal year budget. They want to get started this calendar year,” Hertz said, which would allow for a launch around 2020.