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Japan loses contact with space telescope carrying Ottawa gear

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A new Japanese space telescope carrying $10 million of hardware from Ottawa’s Neptec Design Group has lost contact with Earth and U.S. space officials say it has broken up.

Astro-H, also known as Hitomi, was launched Feb. 17 and may have broken into five pieces after a sudden but unexplained event on Saturday. There was also a sudden shift in its orbit.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency says in a release that attempts at communication “failed from the start,” though there was one brief signal later.

“Under this circumstance, JAXA set up emergency headquarters … for recovery and investigation. The headquarters … has been working for recovery and the investigation of the cause,” the agency said.

But the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC), which tracks objects in space,  announced on Twitter: “Update: Analysis shows ASTRO H breakup occurred 26Mar…” It calls the breakup “confirmed.”

It said earlier that it has detected as many as five small objects around the satellite, possibly fragments of the original spacecraft. However, this leaves the possibility that most of the spacecraft is intact.

Hitomi is an X-ray telescope, meaning it makes images from high-energy X-rays emitted from distant galaxies instead of taking photographs using light. X-rays are used to “see” into black holes, which do not emit visible light.

It cost about $355 million Cdn, and was designed and built by Japan, the United States, Europe and Canada.

Neptec’s hardware uses two lasers to measure distortion in a mast on the satellite, which bends with the changes in temperature as Hitomi constantly moves from Earth’s shadow into sunshine and back to darkness, 550 kilometres above Earth. By measuring the distortion, telescope operators could improve their accuracy.

In return for the hardware, Canada won the right to share in the satellite’s science work. Three Canadian astronomers all had research planned — Luigi Gallo of Saint Mary’s University,  Brian McNamara of the University of Waterloo, and Samar Safi-Harb of the University of Manitoba.

In a video on the Canadian Space Agency’s site, astronaut David St-Jacques explained the mission of Hitomi.

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