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August 13, 2009 - Landsat 5 Anomaly

By Landsat Missions

Landsat 5 experienced an anomaly in the early morning hours of August 13, 2009.

The Flight Operations Team (FOT) is assessing the problem and testing spacecraft systems. No imaging will occur until further notice.

At 0523Z, the Landsat 5 spacecraft experienced an attitude anomaly characterized by extreme gyro rates. The spacecraft proceeded to tumble out of control for some time until the FOT was able to stabilize the satellite attitude (positioning). At this point, the spacecraft is stable and the FOT is beginning to analyze the data from the anomaly.