#Rosetta status report : close #flyby navigation issues
▻http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/04/01/rosetta-status-report-close-flyby-navigation-issues
During its most recent close flyby last Saturday, where #rosetta flew within 14 km of the surface of the #comet, the spacecraft experienced significant difficulties in navigation. This resulted in its high gain antenna starting to drift away from pointing at the Earth, impacting communications, and was subsequently followed by a ‘safe mode’ event. The spacecraft has now been successfully recovered, but it will take a little longer to resume normal scientific #Operations. Here is the full report from the mission team: Rosetta has been flying a series of flyby trajectories around #Comet_67P/C-G since February, allowing the spacecraft to collect scientific data from a range of distances. Its closest flyby to date took it just 6 km from the surface of the comet – over the Imhotep region on the (...)