NASA Shuts Down NEOWISE Spacecraft, Closing More than a Decade of Asteroid Observations Written 9 August 2024
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Artist's concept shows the NASA WISE spacecraft, in its orbit around Earth. | Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Spaceflight Now reports, “A spacecraft that helped bolster planetary defense is now at the end of its operational mission. On Thursday, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California sent the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft into its final hibernation mode by shutting off its transmitter. The command, issued from the Earth Orbiting Missions Operations Center at JPL, brought to an end more than a decade of observations of comets and asteroids that helped further the understanding of celestial bodies that could potentially pose a threat to Earth.”
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