ROSCOSMOS - Spekt-R Mission logo.
Jan. 15, 2019
Russia is no longer able to communicate with its only radio telescope in orbit, called Spekt-R.
Russia has lost control of its only space radio telescope, Spektr-R. It works to restore communication with the machine, announced Monday the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, which has experienced a series of failures in recent years.
Spektr-R or RadioAstron
The giant telescope - Spektr-R or RadioAstron - no longer responds to the instructions of its control center on Earth since Thursday, said Roscosmos, who recently experienced the failure of launching a Soyuz rocket with two men on board. A new attempt to regain control Monday night has failed, according to Russian news agencies quoting a Roscomos official.
An American observatory, however, has received signals from the aircraft, which means that its aircraft systems operate autonomously, said the Russian space agency. The Spektr-R telescope - nicknamed the "Russian Hubble", in reference to the US Space Telescope - was launched in 2011 to observe black holes, neutron stars and magnetic fields. With Earth-based observatories and a ten-meter antenna, it is one of the largest telescopes in the world.
Another telescope
A new attempt to make contact with the device will take place, according to Roscosmos, the previous ones remained without result. "You can not bury a satellite that is undoubtedly still alive," the project director Yuri Kovalev said in an email to AFP, refusing to say that the telescope was definitely lost. It's like asking for a comment on the state of health of a patient at a time when doctors are fighting to save him, "he added.
The Spektr-R telescope was supposed to remain in service only until 2014, but its mission had been extended. According to experts, this project had been an important success for the Russian space program. Russia plans to launch this year another telescope, Spektr-RG, whose mission will be to "complete the map of the world," according to Roscosmos.
In October, the Soyuz rocket that was to bring two astronauts, a Russian and an American, to the orbital station, failed. The two men returned to Earth safe and sound after the automatic ejection of their capsule.
Related article:
Soyuz MS-10 - Emergency landing after a failure
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/10/soyuz-ms-10-emergency-landing-after.html
Roscosmos: https://www.roscosmos.ru/
Images, Text, Credits: ATS/ROSCOSMOS/RIANOVOSTI/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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