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Japan Shuts Down Infrared Space Telescope After 5 Years

The successful mission was long-lived by all standards

Nov 29, 2011 15:01 GMT  ·  By
The Akari all-sky image is arranged with the Galactic Center in the middle, and the plane of the Galaxy running horizontally across the map
   The Akari all-sky image is arranged with the Galactic Center in the middle, and the plane of the Galaxy running horizontally across the map

After an anomaly that occurred on May 24 affected the power generation system aboard the Akari infrared space telescope, officials at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) finally admitted defeat. They announced last week that the telescope has been shut down after 5+ years of mission.

The spacecraft was launched on February 21, 2006, and managed to endure for a lot longer than originally planned. Its role was to observe stellar nurseries, distant galaxies in the early Universe, as well as cold objects in our solar system – such as asteroids.

The glitch that affected it in May forced mission controllers to conclude scientific observations in June. Diagnostics showed that the vehicle was not using its batteries at all, which meant it only had power while its solar cells were exposed directly to sunlight.

Transmitters aboard the infrared telescope were shut down at 0823 GMT, on Thursday, November 24, SpaceflightNow reports. Seeing that Akari's mission was originally supposed to last for only one year and a half, JAXA is more than satisfied with the fact that it could keep it alive for a lot longer than that.