[Satellite TODAY 05-13-11] The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) terminated its recovery efforts for the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) after the spacecraft experienced an electrical anomaly last month that caused ALOS to break communication with its control station, JAXA officials announced May 12.

JAXA said the satellite lost all electricity hours after it entered a low-power safe mode. “JAXA had been trying to communicate with the ALOS satellite for about three weeks after its power generation anomaly on April 22, but we decided to complete its operations by sending a command from the ground to halt its onboard transmitter and batteries,” the agency said in a statement.

ALOS was launched aboard an H-2A rocket in January 2006. The satellite was designed to produce at least 4 kilowatts of power through the end of its life. JAXA said the ALOS mission was supposed to last at least three years, and that the craft, “narrowly achieved JAXA’s stated goal of five years of operations,” according to the statement.