[SatNews] Another major satellite has experienced difficulties, this one in the form of a software glitch.
The European Space Agency has reported the GOCe satellite has been troubled with such a difficulty since July. GOCe is designed to map the gravitational field of Earth, but has been unable to send its collected data to receiving stations. A patch is currently being worked on to correct the telemetry problem and the hopes are for a radio link to be installed by next month. GOCe has already completed two-thirds of its mission, with many of its science objectives already completed. The satellite was launched on March 17th in 2009.
The ESA describes GOCE as “the Formula 1” of satellites due to its avant-garde design — it is a five-metre (16.25-feet) craft that is arrow-like in appearance, rather than the usual boxy dimensions. The satellite possesses stabilizing fins as it orbits Earth at an altitude of just 250 kilometres (156 miles) where there is still a lingering atmosphere. This is not the first difficulty for GOCe, which actually had a primary computer chip failure in February of this year. This required a switch over to the backup computer.
