NASA’s IBEX spacecraft back to studying edge of solar system after glitch

While the kind of flight computer reset that happened on February 18 has happened before, last month’s event was different because the team lost the ability to command the spacecraft when it happened, according to NASA. They tried regaining command capability by resetting ground systems hardware and software, but they were unsuccessful until March 2.

To take IBEX out of contingency more, the mission team performed a firecode reset instead of waiting for it to perform an autonomous reset and power cycle on March 4. A firecode reset is an external reset of a spacecraft. They were able to do this because of the favourable communications environment around the point where the spacecraft’s orbit was closest to Earth, or its “perigee.”