Illustration of one of the eight CYGNSS satellites in orbit above a hurricane. Credit: NASA
Recently, it was reported that NASA lost contact with the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) spacecraft. Now, NASA says it has also lost contact with one of the eight CYGNSS spacecraft.
NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) team has not been able to make contact with FM06, one of the eight CYGNSS spacecraft, since November 26, 2022. The team is currently still working to acquire a signal and establish a connection. The other seven spacecraft continue to operate normally and have been collecting science measurements since the FM06 anomaly.
Contact with NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) spacecraft was lost on November 25. The spacecraft is equipped with a built-in onboard command loss timer that power cycles (or resets) the spacecraft after contact is lost for eight days. After the power cycle was complete on December 5, the team was still unable to acquire a downlink signal from the spacecraft. Working with the Department of Defense’s Space Surveillance Network, the team has verified that the ICON spacecraft remains intact. Currently, the team is still working to establish a connection.
There is no evidence that the close timing of the two incidents is linked.
Illustration of ICON spacecraft. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith
CYGNSS is a constellation of eight small satellites taking measurements of ocean surface winds in and near the eye of the storm throughout the lifecycle of tropical cyclones, typhoons, and hurricanes.
If the team isn’t able to reestablish contact, the FM06 satellite would primarily affect the constellation’s spatial coverage. However, the CYGNSS constellation could continue to meet its scientific requirements and objectives.
Dr. Chris Ruf, Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite Systems (CYGNSS) Principal Investigator talks about the mission. (Video recorded in 2014.) Credit: NASA Langley Research Center
CYGNSS was launched on December 15, 2016, and completed its prime mission science objectives on March 19, 2019. It has been operating in extended mission status since that time.
ICON launched on October 10, 2019, and completed its two-year prime mission science objectives in December 2021. It has been operating in extended mission status since that time.
Stop sending things up there, trying to find answers to things that you aren’t ready for.
Aleins…
Makes me think of the story of the Chinese farmer. Hopefully they come back on or they can be pinpointed and maybe repaired. How difficult is it to sent out an X-37 to and from the space station.
Possible debris impact or hack & hijack.
NASA is national; world needs a global space admin. Hello UN! Maybe a diverse world police force too. But nooo US and RU had to play MAD, laughing all the way.
Broadcom modem sideattack, voice mailbox full, ransomware, gain function error on alien presence, or great success for in-band microwave power downlink from Chinese solar deployment? Hard to know.
The nutters are out on the comment board today. Nurse! Nurse! They’re raving again!
This is a complex analysis of power input for running of artificial earth satellites.Octet Rule of Star Dynamics can play an important role in such events.
Perhaps, and not out of the question, they’ve been hacked!
Key phraze …
… “working with the Dept. of Defense’s Space Surveillance Program”. Anything is possible.
Who is in charge? Does anybody have a space trash pick-up? You’re trashing it up out there will technology only whoever owns space can provide.
Who is in charge? Does anybody have a space trash pick-up? You’re trashing it up out there with technology only whoever owns space can provide protection/encryption for, so I’ll keep it.
Like always. An enormous bs. What? Did you lose a CGI file, is that it?
Stop lying and deceiving people. You know that all those lies will come to the surface, sooner or later.