Fergie's Tech Blog

NASA Scrambling to Compensate for Deep Space Network Breakdown

Colin Clark writes on Space.com:

NASA project managers are meeting daily to figure out how to avoid losing mission data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the Cassini spacecraft as a result of a longer than planned shutdown of one of the three antennas that comprise Deep Space Network (DSN), agency officials said today.

The problem is that two giant bearings that allow the DSN's antenna in Madrid, Spain to rotate have failed, forcing NASA to take it offline for three months longer than originally planned.

The antenna was going to be down from the end of June until the beginning of October for routine maintenance. Replacing the bearings and testing the equipment means it will be out of commission until the beginning of January, Michael Rodrigues, program manager for the Deep Space Mission System at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said Aug. 2.

posted by Fergie @ 8/02/2006 07:33:00 PM