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Six days after mission controllers lost contact with the CONTOUR spacecraft and no signals have been received by NASA to suggest the probe is still operational. Two objects, thought to be pieces of the spacecraft, were observed in Aug 16, and a third more distant object now has been found. The objects are more than 2 million kilometres from Earth and travelling on the trajectory predicted for CONTOUR. Pre-programmed broadcasts from the spacecraft's antennas were scheduled to start 96 hours after contact with the spacecraft was lost and are due to be completed today. No signals, however, have been received by NASA's Deep Space Network suggesting that the spacecraft is unable to communicate. A further attempt to monitor signals from CONTOUR will be made in early December when it will be in a favourable position.
More info: CONTOUR website
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