NASA recently lost contact with an atmosphere-studying satellite working beyond its design lifetime.
The mission passed its two-year prime mission in December 2021 and is working under an extended mission.
Troubleshooting continues, as the mission team explores the probable source of the issue to "problems within the avionics or radio-frequency communications subsystems," NASA officials added.
It is unclear right now whether the spacecraft will call home again, the blog post noted. "The team is currently unable to determine the health of the spacecraft, and the lack of a downlink signal could be indicative of a system failure."
Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of "Why Am I Taller(opens in new tab)?" (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book about space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace(opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom(opens in new tab) or Facebook(opens in new tab).ospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) fell out of contact on Nov. 25, and the mission team has not been able to hail the spacecraft in the weeks since, agency officials wrote in a brief statement(opens in new tab) on Wednesday (Dec. 7).