SPACE — According to the controllers of the European Space Agency’s Ulysses spacecraft have revealed that the fuel that’s required to keep the antenna pointed toward Earth has started to freeze. This has resulted in Earth-pointing maneuvers becoming less efficient, as well as the radio signals from the spacecraft growing weaker. The Ulysses spacecraft, whose mission was expected to end on July 1st, 2008, is currently hanging on valiantly—however, the end could happen any time now. Ulysses continues to provide important science data as the spacecraft pursues its exploration of the heliosphere, the sphere of influence of our star. Although the spacecraft can now transmit data only in real time, the amazing 17.5-year-old mission is using all the time it has left to add to the wealth of information collected so far.
Ulysses is a joint mission between ESA and NASA. ESA provided the spacecraft, built by Astrium GmbH, Friedrichshafen, Germany (formerly Dornier Systems). NASA provided the Space Shuttle launch, the inertial upper stage and the payload assist module to put Ulysses into its correct orbit. NASA also provided the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) to power the craft and its payload. ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) and European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) have been managing the mission in coordination with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Ulysses is tracked by NASA’s Deep Space Network. A joint ESA/NASA team at JPL has overseen spacecraft operations and data management. Teams from universities and research institutes in Europe and the United States provided the 10 instruments on board.
