14 DAY TRIAL // Experts at the European Space Agency (ESA) announce that they have lost contact with Envisat, the organization's flagship Earth-monitoring spacecraft. The satellite has been orbiting our planet for more than a decade, and has produced vast amounts of scientific data thus far.
ESA Mission Control is currently working on establishing the cause of the problem, and on identifying the steps required to address it. The first signs of trouble appeared on April 8, as the vehicle was flying above the agency's Kiruna ground station, in Sweden. No data were transmitted during the pass.
The good news here is that Envisat appears to fly in a stable orbit, so experts are not worried that it will reenter Earth's atmosphere any time soon. However, all efforts to reestablish contact have thus far failed.
This spacecraft has already spent twice the time it was supposed to in space, and has recently completed its 50,000th orbit around Earth. Envisat is scheduled to be replaced by the ESA Sentinel constellation over the next few years.