NASA completed a mission to detect asteroids that pose a threat to Earth

By Alimat Aliyeva

Engineers of NASA’s NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Survey) mission
have ordered the last transmitter on the spacecraft observing
asteroids and comets to be turned off, Azernews
reports.

The planetary defense mission, which lasted for more than 10
years, to search for asteroids and comets, as well as celestial
bodies that could pose a threat to the Earth, has ended.

The last group was sent from NASA’s Near-Earth Orbit Mission
Control Center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern
California. The agency’s satellite tracking and data system then
transmitted a signal to NEOWISE, decommissioning the
spacecraft.

NASA spokeswoman Nicola Fox told reporters: “The NEOWISE mission
has become an extraordinary success story as it has helped us
better understand our place in the universe by tracking asteroids
and comets that may be dangerous to us on Earth. “Although we are
saddened by the completion of this daring mission, research will
continue thanks to the next generation Planetary Defense
Telescope.”

NASA was forced to end the mission because NEOWISE’s orbit fell
too low to collect useful data. Thus, increased solar activity
expands the upper layers of the atmosphere and creates resistance
to a spacecraft without an engine. The decommissioned NEOWISE is
expected to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere by the end of
2024.

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