Contact lost with flagship Envisat spacecraft

[Still Waters]

Contact has been lost with the European Space Agency's (Esa) flagship Earth observation mission - Envisat.

Controllers stopped receiving data from the eight-tonne spacecraft on Sunday, and have not as yet been able to re-establish communications.

Envisat was launched in 2002 and is already operating five years beyond its planned mission lifetime.

Esa was expecting to turn off the spacecraft in 2014, once the first in a series of follow-ons had been launched.

A recovery team, which includes experts from industry, is now working to try to re-establish contact with the platform.

Read more...

[Space Commander Travis]

"A recovery team, which includes experts from industry, is now working to try to re-establish contact with the platform" makes it sound as if they've sent a tow truck.

Well, it lasted a bit longer than Kim Jong-un's 'un, so I dobn't suppose they ought to complain too much.

[me-wonders]

"A recovery team, which includes experts from industry, is now working to try to re-establish contact with the platform" makes it sound as if they've sent a tow truck.

Well, it lasted a bit longer than Kim Jong-un's 'un, so I dobn't suppose they ought to complain too much.

Ah might an 8 ton spacecraft be a danger? Could it fall to earth? What if it collides with another spacecraft? I read we are trashing up the space around us, and scientist are now trying to figure out how to remove our trash from space.

What if it quit talking to us, because it is talking to aliens?

[spud the mackem]

The Euro Space Agency have lost a communications satellite..This is called Envisat and is the largest civilian satellite ever to fly,apparently it has forgotten to phone home on the 8th April.Its 10 years old weighs about 8000 kilos and is the size of a school bus,and is said to be flying 497 miles above the Earth,at the last time it was heard...

[SolarPlexus]

Thanks for letting us know ! By the way, I'm curious what's a "civilian satellite" ?

[spud the mackem]

Thanks for letting us know ! By the way, I'm curious what's a "civilian satellite" ?

Not a military satellite, dont you have satellites for weather,tv.cell phones,etc ? which are for commercial use,like how about sky tv ?

[SolarPlexus]

Ah i see

[Abramelin]

Ah might an 8 ton spacecraft be a danger? Could it fall to earth? What if it collides with another spacecraft? I read we are trashing up the space around us, and scientist are now trying to figure out how to remove our trash from space.

What if it quit talking to us, because it is talking to aliens?

Maybe it's singing a song?

[Waspie_Dwarf]

ESA declares end of mission for Envisat

Just weeks after celebrating its tenth year in orbit, communication with the Envisat satellite was suddenly lost on 8 April. Following rigorous attempts to re-establish contact and the investigation of failure scenarios, the end of the mission is being declared.

A team of engineers has spent the last month attempting to regain control of Envisat, investigating possible reasons for the problem.

Despite continuous commands sent from a widespread network of ground stations, there has been no reaction yet from the satellite.

As there were no signs of degradation before the loss of contact, the team has been collecting other information to help understand the satellite’s condition. These include images from ground radar and the French Pleiades satellite.

Read more...