WASHINGTON, OCT 16: NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, observing the universe in high-energy light since 1999, is back in action after suffering a glitch due to the failure of the gyroscope and going into safe mode last week.
The cause of Chandra's safe mode on October 10 has now been understood and the Operations team has successfully returned the spacecraft to its normal pointing mode, according to the US space agency.
"The safe mode was caused by a glitch in one of Chandra's gyroscopes resulting in a 3-second period of bad data that, in turn, led the on-board computer to calculate an incorrect value for the spacecraft momentum. The erroneous momentum indication then triggered the safe mode," NASA said in a statement late on Monday.
The team has completed plans to switch gyroscopes and place the gyroscope that experienced the glitch in reserve. - IANS
