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Science 12 February 1999:
Vol. 283. no. 5404, pp. 917 - 919
DOI: 10.1126/science.283.5404.917b
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News of the Week

SOLAR PHYSICS:
SOHO Learns the Cruder Arts of Navigation

Alexander Hellemans

On 21 December, the last of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory's (SOHO's) three gyroscopes failed, threatening to end the spacecraft's mission. But last week, ground controllers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, beamed aboard SOHO a jury-rigged software program that has reoriented the spacecraft. By relying on a sun sensor instead of the gyroscopes, engineers say, the craft should be able to keep its bearings for at least four more years.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)