#solar conjunction

"NASA REGAINS CONTACT WITH LONG-LOST SUN PROBE"

 NASA has finally re-established contact with its sun-watching probe STEREO-B that was thought to have been lost in space after it abruptly went silent in 2014. Monthly, NASA scientists made searches for the probe, and on Sunday evening (Aug. 21), a signal from the long-lost spacecraft was detected by NASA"s Deep Space network, a collection of space tracking stations that follows the agency's space missions.  In October 2006, NASA launched the STEREO spacecrafts, twin probes designed to monitor the Sun. However both spacecraft went behind the Sun in 2015 and that caused all the current problems. Right before that solar conjunction, NASA was testing a command loss timer, a reset triggered every 72 hours when the spacecraft is not communicating with Earth. In 2014, testings for the command loss timer for STEREO-A went without a flaw, assuring a safe solar conjunction. However with STEREO-B, things didn't go as well. The hard reset occurred, but the probe only sent a weak signal back to Earth before it completely faded into silence.  Eventually the team concluded that the probe received incorrect data which sent the spacecraft into a spin that left its solar panels out of sunlight most of the time, making it hard for the probe to recharge its battery. To remedy this situation, NASA scientists will be required to take the probe off autopilot, and with only two minutes, they will have to rescue the probe from its dire situation, otherwise it may be lost to the void yet again.

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