NASA Says Chandra X-Ray Observatory Is Back To Normal

Earlier this month, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory experienced an issue that sent it into safe mode, this following the agency's Hubble issue. Officials confirmed on October 15 that a gyroscope "glitch" had caused the problem, saying that the issue resulted in three seconds of "bad data" causing the wrong spacecraft momentum to be calculated.

That incorrectly calculated spacecraft momentum resulted in the observatory automatically engaging a safe mode. NASA had speculated shortly after the change that a gyroscope was to blame and confirmed it earlier this month. In a new update shared today, NASA has confirmed that its team fixed the problem and the observatory is back in action.

Chandra resumed its normal scientific mission late on October 21, according to the space agency, after experts performed a procedure for a new gyroscope configuration. Following that, the team had Chandra perform some maneuvers, altering its pointing direction and orientation in order to make sure everything is operating properly.

The work isn't done yet, though. NASA says its team will collect data from the observatory over the next week, using that to make any necessary fine tuning adjustments to the performance. After that, scientists will send out a software patch to the spacecraft's computer to apply whatever adjustments may be necessary.

SOURCE: NASA