Japanese Space Probe Was Smashed Into Five Pieces

The Japanese space agency has been able to capture signals from lost X-ray satellite Hitomi, but the probe appears to have broken up into pieces. JAXA lost contact with Hitomi, or ASTRO-H, on Saturday, when the satellite was due to start operations. Since then, the agency has managed to get two signals from the space probe, one at around 8am EST on Monday and the other at 10.30am EST on Tuesday. However, JAXA still doesn’t know what happened to the satellite or if it can be salvaged. “JAXA has not been able to figure out the state of its health, as the time frames for receiving the signals were very short,” the agency said in a statement. More

(Source: Forbes - Mar 31)