NASA briefly regained contact with the STEREO-B spacecraft on Aug. 21, 2016, after more than 22 months without communication. It was a signal recovery, not a return to service: the probe was tumbling with degraded power, contact was lost again in September 2016, and NASA ended recovery support in 2018.
What happened to STEREO-B?
STEREO-B was the “Behind” spacecraft in NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory mission, launched in 2006 with its twin, STEREO-A. The pair observed the Sun, solar wind and space weather from different orbital viewpoints. NASA lost communications with STEREO-B on Oct. 1, 2014.
The loss occurred during a planned test of the spacecraft’s command-loss timer. That system was designed to trigger a hard reset after 72 hours without communication. NASA conducted the test before solar conjunction, the period when the Sun would block the spacecraft’s line of sight to Earth. The test was followed by the loss of contact; the available records establish the sequence but do not establish that the timer test alone explains every condition that followed.
How did NASA find the spacecraft again?
NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), which communicates with distant spacecraft, made contact during a monthly recovery attempt. On Aug. 21, 2016, at 6:27 p.m. EDT, the DSN locked onto STEREO-B’s downlink carrier—the radio signal transmitted by the spacecraft. NASA announced the reconnection the following day.
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The recovery was difficult rather than a matter of simply switching the probe back on. A NASA technical report says the carrier was detected on the 25th attempt, with STEREO-B about 2 astronomical units (AU) from Earth. One AU is roughly the average distance between Earth and the Sun. The spacecraft was rotating about its principal axis and communicating at emergency data rates.
A later technical record reports that just 245 telemetry packets were received during the recovery attempt. STEREO-B’s attitude was still uncontrolled and its power was degraded. Those conditions limited what could be done with the brief contact; the cited records do not provide a single total for scientific data returned.
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Was STEREO-B recovered and returned to service?
No. The Aug. 21, 2016 event reestablished radio contact, but it did not restore normal operations. NASA’s contact with STEREO-B ended again after Sept. 23, 2016. The agency continued periodic recovery efforts, then ended recovery support on Oct. 17, 2018.
That distinction matters: “found” describes detecting the spacecraft’s signal, not recovering a functioning observatory. NASA’s mission status record says STEREO-B’s mission ended in 2018.
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What is STEREO-A doing now?
STEREO-A, the other member of the mission, remains active, according to NASA’s mission page. It continues the mission’s solar observations from its own orbital position; STEREO-B’s brief reconnection did not put the twin spacecraft back into joint operation.
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