The ten-year-old QuikSCAT (Quick Scatterometer) NASA mission is considered by many at the American space agency and elsewhere as one of the most valuable national resources in orbit today. The satellite, whose goal was to provide up-to-date data on the direction and speed of winds over the planet's oceans, was originally designed to last for no more than five years. It was launched on June 19, 1999 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base, aboard a Titan 23G delivery system, and entered the active scientific-operation stage shortly after. However, in recent months, age-related damages have prevented it from continuing its mission, experts at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announce.

“In recent months, the QuikSCAT project team has been monitoring a pattern of increasing friction in the bearings that allow the antenna to spin, leading to increased resistance and strain on the motor that turns QuikSCAT's rotating antenna. This degradation was fully expected, as the spin mechanism was designed to last about 5 years,” a press release on the JPL official news blog shows. The antenna stopped spinning altogether on Monday, November 23, after showing increased signs of trouble over the weekend. Unfortunately, the glitch was not minor, and the mechanisms could no longer spin the SCAT.

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