After a month of receiving the silent treatment, controllers have regained contact with a TRACERS spacecraft that went offline shortly after launch.

The next step will be an attempt to recover the spacecraft to the point where science operations can begin.

The two TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) were launched on July 23 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Everything appeared to be going smoothly until, shortly after launch, an issue arose during the commissioning process. Space Vehicle 2 (SV2) was fine, but Space Vehicle 1 (SV1) was not.

Engineers reckoned the problem was down to a lack of power through the spacecraft's solar panels and pinned the blame on an issue with the power subsystem. The ho

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