After 27 days in survival mode during the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier (ELC) 4 power loss, the SAGE III/ISS instrument doesn’t have to worry anymore. The instrument’s full power was restored thanks to the all-woman spacewalk on October 18.
On October 21, the SAGE III/ISS operations team successfully completed the payload activation at 2:15 pm ET (18:15 UTC) following the week-long ISS activities to restore power to the ELC 4. All telemetry and currents are nominal and the mechanism tests confirmed that the mechanisms are in nominal working order.
Science collection was resumed with a commanded limb event collected at 2:28 pm ET followed by a successful sunset event acquisition at 2:50 pm ET. A successful lunar event was acquired at 4:30 pm ET. The payload is continuing to collect nominal science event data, and the team will continue to monitor and extensively analyze the telemetry over the coming days to verify that the instrument is in nominal working order.
The SAGE III mission benefited from the excellent work performed by the all-woman Extravehicular Activity (EVA) team who replaced the power regulator that restored primary power to the SAGE III payload, allowing the instrument to resume nominal science collection of stratospheric ozone, aerosol, and water vapor measurements.
Credits: NASA TV
