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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has lost contact with the Hitomi X-ray space observatory [wikipedia.org], which was launched on February 17th. JAXA engineers are still trying to contact the satellite [nature.com]. The US Joint Space Operations Center spotted five pieces of space debris near the satellite around the time contact was lost:

The space debris could indicate some minor pieces blowing off Hitomi as opposed to complete destruction, says Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and space analyst at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hitomi, which was known before launch as ASTRO-H [nature.com], is designed to study X-rays streaming from cosmic phenomena such as black holes, galaxy clusters and dark matter. It carries a high-resolution spectrometer to measure X-ray wavelengths in exquisite detail. Earlier versions of the same instrument have twice met a grim fate on JAXA missions: in 2000, the ASTRO-E telescope crashed on launch, and in 2005 a helium leak aboard the Suzaku satellite crippled its spectrometer within weeks of launch.

JAXA lost contact with Hitomi at 4:40 p.m. Japan time on 26 March. "The cause of the communication failure is under investigation," the agency said. It has, however, received at least one short signal from the satellite since then, and is working on possible ways to start talking to it again.

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