On 8 February 2018, NASA published a detailed account of the IMAGE satellite's recovery. The satellite was transmitting data beyond simple telemetry, indicating that some of its six onboard instruments were still active. NASA engineers are attempting to determine the satellite's status, but since the software and hardware type used in the IMAGE Mission Operations Center have been discarded and no longer exist, they are in the process of adapting old software and databases to their modern systems and track down replacement hardware. On 25 February 2018, NASA again lost contact with the satellite, but not in the same manner it did in 2005. Richard Burley, former IMAGE mission director, stated that he believes there is an issue with IMAGE's spin axis in relation to its medium-gain antenna placement. If NASA can regain control of the spacecraft, and the status of data and ground systems can be assessed, it will decide if it can fund a mission restart. On 4 March 2018, the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University reported detecting the signal from the satellite, but it was too faint to lock onto. On 9 May 2018, Scott Tilley again detected a strong signal from IMAGE. Hours later NASA and APL engineers had locked onto the signal and were receiving telemetry. Commands were transmitted to IMAGE, but for unknown reasons the spacecraft only acknowledged receipt of a fraction of those commands. On 28 August 2018, NASA announced that the IMAGE team had stopped receiving any signals from the satellite, as previously happened in winter, and would continue to try sending commands. On 20 January 2019, a full year passed since the spacecraft's rediscovery date and it has remained out of contact since 5 August 2018. Efforts continue, especially following eclipses which might reset the electronics. Gallery See also Explorer program Galaxy 15 List of plasma physics articles Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission Zombie Satellite References External links IMAGE website by NASAGoddard IMAGE website by the Southwest Research Institute Satellites orbiting Earth Explorers Program Spacecraft launched in 2000 Spacecraft launched by Delta II rockets