[FPSPACE] Koronas-Foton satellite in trouble

[Bart Hendrickx]

All scientific equipment aboard the Russian Sun-observing satellite
Koronas-Foton was shut down on 1 December because of problems with the
satellite's power supply system. This was reported to RIA-Novosti by Vitaliy
Yurov, the person in charge of the satellite's scientific payload. Yurov
attributes the shutdown to problems with the satellite's chemical batteries,
which have been showing signs of trouble for some time.   Koronas-Foton was
launched barely 11 months ago and is the only dedicated Russian scientific
satellite currently in orbit and the first Russian scientific satellite to
be launched since Koronas-F in 2001.  Unlike the earlier Koronas satellites,
which were built by Yuzhnoe in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), Koronas-Foton was
built  by the NIIEM organization in Istra near Moscow and uses the same bus
as the Meteor-3M satellite.  Attempts are being made to restore the
satellite to working order, but Yurov describes the situation as "pretty
serious". An insider writing on the Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum is saying
that chances of a full recovery of the power supply system are slim. 

 

Bart Hendrickx  

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