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ROSAT
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== End of operations == Originally designed for a five-year mission, ROSAT continued in its extended mission for a further four years before equipment failure forced an end to the mission. For some months after this, ROSAT completed its very last observations before being finally switched off on 12 February 1999.<ref name="GOC, End" >{{cite web|title=ROSAT completes almost a decade of discovery|url=http://www.ledas.ac.uk/rosat-goc/rosat_pr.html|date=18 February 1999|publisher=[[#ROSAT UK GOC|UK ROSAT Guest Observer Centre]]}}</ref> On 25 April 1998, failure of the primary [[star tracker]] on the [[#XRT|X-ray Telescope]] led to pointing errors that in turn had caused solar overheating.<ref name="ROSAT news 60, star tracker failure">{{cite journal|title=ROSAT/LEDAS electronic newsletter|issue=12|date=5 June 1998|url=http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/rosat-goc/rosnews12|publisher=[[#ROSAT UK GOC|UK ROSAT Guest Observer Centre]]|journal=ROSAT News |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228232103/http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/rosat-goc/rosnews12|archive-date=28 December 2015}}</ref> A contingency plan and the necessary software had already been developed to utilise an alternative star tracker attached to the [[#WFC|Wide Field Camera]]. ROSAT was soon operational again, but with some restrictions to the effectiveness of its tracking and thus its control.<ref name="ROSAT news 66, Damage to HRI" >{{cite web|title=Severe Damage to ROSAT High Resolution Imager|url=http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/rosat-goc/mpenews66|work=star.le.ac.uk|date=15 October 1998|access-date=23 October 2011|archive-date=10 December 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001210175800/http://ledas-www.star.le.ac.uk/rosat-goc/mpenews66|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was severely damaged on 20 September 1998 when a [[reaction wheel]] in the spacecraft's Attitude Measuring and Control System reached its maximum rotational speed,<ref group="note" >A [[reaction wheel]] operates by changing its rotational velocity, [[conservation of angular momentum]] then causing the more massive satellite to rotate in opposition. Their maximum speed is limited by design, which in turn means they are limited in the rotational velocity they can impart to a satellite.{{clarify|date=September 2011}} "Reaching maximum speed" means merely that it cannot impart any more velocity change, not that it's approaching mechanical damage to itself.</ref> losing control of a slew, damaging the High Resolution Imager by exposure to the sun.<ref name="ROSAT news 66, Damage to HRI" /> This failure was initially attributed to the difficulties of controlling the satellite under these difficult circumstances outside its initial design parameters.<ref name="ROSAT news 66, Damage to HRI" /> === Allegations of cyber-attacks causing the failure === In 2008, NASA investigators were reported to have found that the ROSAT failure was linked to a cyber-intrusion at [[Goddard Space Flight Center]].<ref name="Businessweek, Cyber attacks on NASA" >{{cite web |title=Network Security Breaches Plague NASA |url=http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_48/b4110072404167.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120414223803/http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_48/b4110072404167.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 April 2012 |date=20 November 2008 |publisher=[[Business Week]] |quote=Without warning one day, the ROSAT satellite turned, seemingly inexplicably, toward the sun. The move damaged a critical optical sensor, rendering the satellite useless in its mission of making X-ray and ultraviolet images of deep space.}}</ref> The root of this allegation is a 1999 advisory report by Thomas Talleur, senior investigator for cyber-security at NASA.<ref name="Businessweek, Cyber attacks on NASA" /> This advisory<ref name="NASA, 2007, Talleur report" >{{cite book |title=Russian Domain Attacks Against NASA Network Systems|last=Talleur|first=Thomas J.|date=18 January 1999|publisher=Inspector General's office, NASA|pages=26 |no-pp=y|location=Not publicly published. Classified as "For Official Use OnlyโNo Foreign Dissemination"}}</ref> is reported to describe a series of attacks from Russia that reached computers in the X-ray Astrophysics Section (i.e. ROSAT's) at [[Goddard Space Flight Center|Goddard]], and took control of computers used for the control of satellites, not just a passive "snooping" attack. The advisory stated: <blockquote>"Hostile activities compromised [NASA] computer systems that directly and indirectly deal with the design, testing, and transferring of satellite package command-and-control codes."<ref name="NASA, 2007, Talleur report" /></blockquote> The advisory is further reported as claiming that the ROSAT incident was "coincident with the intrusion"<ref name="Businessweek, Cyber attacks on NASA" /> and that, "Operational characteristics and commanding of the ROSAT were sufficiently similar to other space assets to provide intruders with valuable information about how such platforms are commanded,".<ref name="Businessweek, Cyber attacks on NASA" /> Without public access to the advisory, it is obviously impossible to comment in detail. Even if it did describe a real intrusion, there is a plausible "no attack" explanation for ROSAT's failure, and the report is claimed to link the two incidents as no more than "coincident."{{or|date=April 2024}} However, NASA officials in charge of the day-to-day operations of the ROSAT mission at Goddard, including GSFC Rosat Project Scientist Rob Petre, say definitively that no such incident occurred. Talleur's information appears to have come from one of his interns who exaggerated a hacking incident on an office computer not related to flight operations.<ref>{{cite interview | last = Petre | first = Rob | interviewer = Jonathan McDowell |title = ROSAT hacking claim |url= https://planet4589.org/space/jsr/back/news.649.txt | year = 2011}}</ref> IT security remains a significant issue for NASA. Other systems including the [[Earth Observing System]] have also been attacked.<ref name="NASA, 2007, Challenges report" > {{cite web|url= http://oig.nasa.gov/NASA2007ManagementChallenges.pdf |title=NASA's Most Serious Management and Performance Challenges }} {{small|(73 KB)}} 13 November 2007, p.3</ref>
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