Blog

PACE mission update

Greetings to all on mission day 111.  We have two updates to share.

Recent safehold event

The observatory entered its Safe Hold configuration at 22:40:00GMT on Friday, 24 May 2024.  The spacecraft bus and all instruments were all successfully and safely transitioned to this Safe Hold configuration, but science data collection is halted until recovery.  The Flight Operations and Anomaly Resolution Teams met over the (long U.S. holiday) weekend to define corrective action. Instrument recovery began on Tuesday, 28 May 2024, with science data collection to follow.

IMPACT:  Loss of science data from roughly 24 May 2024 22:40:00GMT through at least 28 May 2028.

Upcoming instrument reprocessing

The initial public release of PACE science data products (Version 1) began on 11 April 2024, and provided the science and applications user community with access to the Level-1 data and a limited suite of derived products from the OCI, HARP2, and SPEXone instruments, with the caveat that the data were in a highly preliminary state and should be used with caution.  Reprocessing Version 2 will be the first full mission reprocessing, and primarily serves to incorporate improved calibration knowledge from on-orbit measurements collected by the three PACE instruments.  The reprocessing will also include all standard science mode data collected during the PACE commissioning period, starting from instrument engineering first light in February 2024.  Corresponding release notes describing all changes will be provided prior to the initiation of the reprocessing, the timing of which is currently TBD.

IMPACT:   Reprocessed science data products from all three instruments and release of science mode data collected during the PACE commissioning period.