Chandra entered Normal Sun Mode (NSM) at 12:27pm EDT on Oct 20 as the result of a reset of the Interface Unit (IU) on-board the spacecraft. Entry into NSM was nominal and assessment of the telemetry indicated that all spacecraft hardware was performing nominally. Engineering assessment suggested that the reset of the IU and subsequent transition to NSM was due to a single event upset and the decision was made to recover to normal pointing mode and continue with science. The recovery operations began on Oct 20 with an estimated resumption of science on Oct 22 in the evening. Scheduled observations that were impacted by the anomaly will be rescheduled in future weeks.

Chandra passed through the 7th and 8th eclipses of the season on Oct 16 and 19 respectively, with nominal power and thermal performance.

A Chandra image release was issued on Oct 18 of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant which combines X-rays from Chandra with data from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The data show that the magnetic fields in X-rays tend to be aligned in radial directions even very close to the shock fronts. The X-rays also reveal a lower amount of polarization than radio observations showed, which suggests that the X-rays come from turbulent regions with a mix of many different magnetic field directions. For details see: https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2022/casa_streams/

The schedule of targets for the next week is still in work due to the IU reset.