Bad news for NASA as Rs 5607900000 box installed on ISS breaks down due to…, unable to send data to…, NICER telescope to…

This special X-ray telescope, worth USD 67 million, is installed on the International Space Station (ISS) and was mounted there in 2017.

New Delhi: In an important development, the US space agency NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope has stopped its scientific operations due to a sudden hardware malfunction. It is important to note that this special X-ray telescope, worth USD 67 million, is installed on the International Space Station (ISS) and was mounted there in 2017.

Here are some of the key details:

• According to the reports, the key motor in NICER malfunctioned on June 17.
• This motor was used to rotate the telescope from one side to the other, enabling it to target objects in space.
• This motor has now stopped working and is no longer able to change its direction.
• Due to its inability to turn, scientists have also had to halt all observation-related activities.
• Efforts are underway to place the motor in safe mode. However, its malfunction has not caused any other damage to the telescope, nor does it pose any danger to the crew present there.
• The telescope is being monitored with the help of its robotic camera
• The ground team and the astronauts aboard the ISS are working to repair the motor.
• To recall, in 2023, it had faced a light leakage problem, which had also affected observation work at that time.
• The sudden breakdown of the telescope is delaying research work that depends on the data obtained from it.

NASA had launched this telescope in 2017 for a duration of one and a half years, i.e., 18 months, but it has continued to operate in the same location for the past eight years.