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A satellite built to observe infrared light from newborn stars in distant
galaxies has spun out of control. The Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE)
blasted off on 4 March. As soon as it hit orbit, however, NASA mission
controllers discovered that a leak of hydrogen from its cooling system was
causing the craft to spin at 60 revolutions per minute. The spin began to
stabilise over the weekend, and as New Scientist went to press, engineers were
working to slow it down still further. But the satellite is already useless: the
lost hydrogen was needed to cool WIRE’s infrared detectors.