Nov 25 1998
From The Space Library
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that the ion engine responsible for the Deep Space 1 probe's primary propulsion was back in operation after its unexpected shutdown two weeks earlier. Scientists believed that metallic grit or another type of contaminant located between two high-voltage grids had caused the engine to shut down after running for 4% minutes.
Russian Space Agency officials reported, for the first time since Zarya's launch, that the module had experienced malfunctions. At a press conference, Director General of the Russian Space Agency Yuri N. Koptev explained that none of the module's three minor malfunctions had any impact on the module's overall operations. Koptev reported that one of the eight batteries storing energy collected from the module's solar panels had not performed properly, but he emphasized that Zarya needed only four of the eight batteries to operate. Mission Control had detected an "unexpected abundance of humidity" inside the module, but engineers did not yet know its cause. The third problem involved a malfunctioning antenna in the craft's automatic docking system, a device that the first ISS crew would not need until after their arrival in January 2000.
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