SOHO Recovery Updates

Power, thermal, and propulsion experts from ESA/ESTEC, MMS-F and MMS-UK have arrived this morning.

A detailed power budget has been established and a decision has been made to start thawing of the propellant in the tank this evening. The batteries' charge state and tank temperature will be carefully monitored to confirm power budget and thermal estimates. This monitoring required us to declare a spacecraft emergency in order to have continuous DSN contact.

The SAS data acquired yesterday are still being analyzed at ESTEC, MMS-F and GSFC. Also no definitive results yet from yesterday's X-band ranging measurement.