Specialists fail to take control over Spektr-R satellite again, to make another attempt on Jan 21
MOSCOW. Jan 16 (Interfax-AVN) - The latest attempt to restore control over the Spektr-R spacecraft has been unsuccessful, Alexander Bloshenko, scientific advisor to the head of Roscosmos, told Interfax on Wednesday.
"Today NPO Lavochkin and Russian Space Systems carried out specialist sessions on the Spektr-R spacecraft from the Medvezhy Ozyora station. Unfortunately, the result is negative," Bloshenko said.
"The next step is to repeat today's program, but on Monday when the distance to the spacecraft is minimal," Bloshenko said, noting that on Wednesday the satellite was around 300,000 kilometers away from the Earth.
Earlier, he told Interfax that Roscosmos did not classify this situation as a force-majeure. The spacecraft is 2.5 times over its warranty period, Bloshenko said.
Contact with the Russian spacecraft Spektr-R was lost on the morning of January 10.
The Spektr-R spacecraft has been designed by NPO Lavochkin and is the space element of the international project RadioAstron. The objective of the project is fundamental astrophysical studies in electromagnetic spectrum bands. Observations are conducted by over 40 ground-based radio-telescopes and the Spektr-R orbital observatory.