14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with the European Space Agency announced the successful recovery of a critically-important instrument on their Proba-1 (Project for On-Board Autonomy) satellite. The spacecraft's startracker was damaged by radiations over the course of science operations, but everything is back to normal now.
Originally, this spacecraft was supposed to remain in orbit for just 2 years, but it's now been more than a decade since the satellite has been collecting multi-angular views of the planet. It was launched under the ESA MicroSat program, aboard an Indian-built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
Experts with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) uploaded a new software into the startracker, which cleansed multiple bright spots on the camera's CCD sensors. These spots were caused by radiations hitting the light detector.
Proba-1 is a small spacecraft, measuring just 0.6 × 0.6 × 0.8 meter (1.96 x 1.96 x 2.62 feet), and weighing a little over 130 kilograms (286.6 pounds). The satellite gets its power from two small solar arrays on its sides.