Using radar and telescopes an observation and investigation of “space junk” located in the Japanese prefecture of Okayama (west), it was possible to detect the presence of two objects “around the original orbit satellite, “said JAXA said in a statement released today.
These bodies could be fragments of the Astro-H, with which JAXA was unable to communicate last March 26 when he was scheduled to begin operations.
the device, developed by JAXA, the American NASA and other institutions, aims to orbit about 580 kilometers high and observe black holes and distant galactic clusters through their detectors gamma rays and four telescopes X-ray.
on March 28 the Joint Space Operations Centre (JSpOC) US and suggested that the device might have been “breaks” to see five objects near the satellite, while yesterday National Geographic published the video of an amateur astronomer showing the orbiting unsteadily device.
JAXA said today also it has established very briefly communication with the Astro-H for two monitoring stations located in Santiago de Chile and Uchinoura (southwestern Japan), very close to where it was released the device last February 17 aboard a rocket H2 -A.
However, the agency “has not been able to establish its operating state, because the time slot for receiving the signals was very short,” the statement said.
the agency says JAXA will continue trying to regain contact with the Astro-H and investigating “the causes of the anomaly” that have occurred in communications with the satellite.
the Astro-H is about 14 meters long and weighs about 2.7 tons, making it the heaviest satellite launched to date by Japan. EFE
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