Another space telescope, NASA stopped work and halted scientific observations. Less than a week after the Hubble space telescope went offline, x-ray Observatory Chandra followed him. On Friday, NASA announced that the Chandra is automatically moved in the so-called “safe mode” in the environment, possibly due to problems with the gyro. The Hubble space telescope went into hibernation last Friday also due to the failure of the system of the gyroscope.
The two orbiting observatories are old enough, their mission has been extended several times: the Hubble 28 years, “Chandra” 19. The mission control center working to restore the health of both devices.
Chandra fell asleep after the “Hubble”
NASA claims that the fact that both devices are “asleep” in one week, pure coincidence. Astronomer, working with “Chandra” Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian center for astrophysics wrote on Friday that “Chandra decided that if Hubble allows a small vacation, and she wants”.
“Hubble” and “Chandra” was launched in the 1990s, the years of space Shuttle and are among the most important observatories of NASA. Among others — the Compton gamma-ray Observatory, which also went into space in the 1990-ies, but in the end broke down and was destroyed, and the space telescope “Spitzer”, which was launched in 2003 and is still working. Each of the observatories, watching the cosmos in different wavelengths.
At the time of launch takeoff weight Chandra was 22 753 kg, which is an absolute record for mass ever derived in the space shuttles space shuttles. The bulk of the complex “Chandra” was the rocket will bring the satellite into orbit, the apogee of which is approximately one third the distance to the moon.
The station was designed for the period of work equal to 5 years, however, on 4 September 2001 NASA decided to extend the service life of 10 years, thanks to the outstanding results.
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Another silent NASA telescope in orbit
Ilya Hel