Satellite News

The scientific payload aboard Russia’s solar research satellite Koronas-Foton was switched off owing to power supply problems on 1 December, Novosti news agency reported. Contact with the spacecraft was subsequently lost, and chances of a recovery are said to be slim.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taken out of the precautionary “safe mode” it had been in since August.

NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter put itself into a safe standby mode on Saturday, 28 November, and the team operating the spacecraft has begun implementing careful steps designed to resume Odyssey’s science and relay operations within about a week.
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The Nigeria Communication Satellite, NigComSat-1, failed in orbit last year because a design flaw, according to the country’s Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Alhassan Bako Zaku.

NASA mission managers are assessing options for future operations of the QuikScat satellite following the age-related failure of a mechanism that spins the scatterometer antenna.

Four of the six satellites launched for Orbcomm on 19 June 2008 are now considered (technical) total losses by the company. Orbcomm also considers all six spacecraft – the U.S. Coast Guard demonstration satellite (CDS) and five quick-launch satellites – total constructive losses for insurance purposes.

Japan’s Himawari 6 weather satellite (aka MTSAT 1R) suffered an attitude loss on 11 November, 1225 UTC. Meteorological services have been switched to backup satellite Himawari 7 (MTSAT 2).

ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair confirmed that the premature failure of India’s Chandrayaan-1 moon probe was not caused by heat alone (as prematurely assumed in some reports) but by a combination of factors.
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