Envisat, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) earth observation
satellite, has stopped functioning properly. Communication with
the satellite was lost on April 8th when data was unable to be
retrieved as it passed over the ground control station in
Kiruna, Sweden. Efforts by members of the ESA mission control
team have not been successful in reestablishing communications.
ESA reports that the satellite remains in stable orbit around
the earth. Envisat recently celebrated its 10th year in orbit
which marked twice the length of its intended lifespan. In
October 2010, the orbit of Envisat was lowered from an altitude
of 800 km to about 776 km in an effort to extend the lifespan of
the satellite by three years. To date, the satellite has orbited
the earth more than 50,000 times and houses 10 different
instruments that collect data about Earth’s atmosphere, land,
sea and ice, including the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar
(ASAR) and Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS)
instruments. According tot he ESA, th