Mission End
The mission operated successfully for over 7 years until attitude control was lost on July 14, 2000 during a geomagnetic storm, after which no scientific observations were performed. ASCA reentered the atmosphere on March 2, 2001 after more than 8 years in orbit.
The primary responsibility of the U.S. ASCA GOF was to enable U.S. astronomers to make the best use of the ASCA mission, in close collaboration with the Japanese ASCA team.
Read more about this topic: Advanced Satellite For Cosmology And Astrophysics
Famous quotes containing the word mission:
“Every Age has its own peculiar faith.... Any attempt to translate into facts the mission of one Age with the machinery of another, can only end in an indefinite series of abortive efforts. Defeated by the utter want of proportion between the means and the end, such attempts might produce martyrs, but never lead to victory.”
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)
“Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)