FUSE returns to full-time science operations A moribund orbiting observatory that some had given up for dead returned to life early this month thanks to the ingenuity of scientists and engineers who worked round-the-clock hours to give the satellite a new guidance system without ever actually touching it. FUSE the Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, is back in business after a shutdown in December caused by a guidance problem.
Key to the satellite’s return is a complex new set of procedures that lets controllers at The Johns Hopkins University use electromagnets in the satellite to push and pull on the magnetic field of the Earth. Experts had speculated about such an approach as a fallback for failing satellite guidance systems, but it has never before been employed to steer a satellite with the exacting accuracy needed for scientific observations.