NASA loses contact with important satellite

A miniature satellite tasked with searching for planets outside the solar system has gone dark, mission operators at Nasa have said.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said they were last able to communicate with the satellite, dubbed ASTERIA, on 5 December.

The briefcase-sized spacecraft was first of its kind to be deployed into Earth orbit in 2017 and spent three months “planet-hunting” by observing changes in the brightness of nearby stars.

After completing its first mission in February 2018, ASTERIA continued to operate through three mission extensions.

It successfully observed the transit of previously-discovered exoplanet 55 Cancri e after completing its first mission, earning it “Mission of the Year” at the Small Satellite Conference in 2018.

 

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