So earlier in the life of Little Bits of Science, I wrote about the Hitomi satellite, at the time apparently lost in space. It turns out that the day after I wrote about it, Hitomi was heard from again!
Junked? Maybe not. Hitomi, a Japanese astronomy satellite, was thought to be lost after it failed to come online. Now the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency says the satellite has phoned home – but a full recovery will take months.
What does this mean, exactly? Well, it’s too early to say, even now a month since we’ve heard from the satellite. According to communication that scientists have since gathered from Hitomi – infrequent beacon signals which have been picked up – it appears the satellite is still there, just spinning out of control. And apparently, this is a recoverable situation. The Japanese space agency responsible for the satellite is working on restoring communication and stabilizing it so Hitomi can return to its mission of X-Ray observation of the universe.