A mysterious missing American spacecraft

Experts of the US Aerospace Agency were confused after a ship suddenly stopped contacting the control center.

In 2005, the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) launched the Deep Impact spacecraft into space to launch a warhead into comet Tempel 1. But then NASA extended the spacecraft's operation time to continue it. keep track of comets, stars and planets outside the Solar System.

Illustration of unmanned spacecraft Deep Impact.(Photo: NASA)

Suddenly Deep Impact stopped contacting the control center for a period between August 11 and 14. The engineers identified a software error that caused the spacecraft's computer to restart itself. However, they could not bring it into safety mode during the past time, the AP reported.

Michael A'Hearn, chief engineer, said that now Deep Impact has been out of NASA's control. He and his colleagues are trying to send orders to the spacecraft to help it work again.

Because Deep Impact takes electricity from the solar panels on the wings, if the batteries are not facing the sun, the spacecraft will only have enough electricity for a few days.

'Once the batteries in the spacecraft die, they will not work again , ' A'Hearn said.

Envisat, the largest earth-tracking satellite in human history, launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), also missing. Envisat operators did not receive data from Envisat since April 8, 2012, when it flew through Sweden. With a volume of 8.2 tons and 10.5 meters in length - Envisat orbits in March 2002 with 10 devices to monitor the Earth's oceans, ice, soil and air. Designed to operate for 5 years, but Envisat still tracks the earth until April 8 last. According to ESA's plan, Envisat will be deactivated in 2014.

A satellite of the same type discovered Envisat when two objects were separated within about 100km on April 15. The photos show Envisat, which is about the same size as a bus and weighs 8 tons, still intact and its solar panel has opened.