"We'll fix it in the first patch"<p>Programming for astronomy is famously difficult, since you're always pushing the boundaries one way or another. That said the problem domain is fairly well specified and (as the article shows) usually well models. Mr. Feynman going to Washington showed what treating astro like office software can do, but it's a shame when an expensive project gets a fleshwound from something predictable.<p>See also: what JAXA launched and x-ray satellite that couldn't stop spinning, or that notorious kerfuffle converting pounds-force-hogsheads into metric that sent a very expensive item off into oblivion.
> Loopy star trails show the effect of Euclid's Fine Guidance Sensor intermittently losing its guide stars<p><a href="https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/10/Loopy_star_trails_show_the_effect_of_Euclid_s_Fine_Guidance_Sensor_intermittently_losing_its_guide_stars" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/10/Loopy_star...</a><p>Now that's some beautiful Glitch Art!
> It arrived smoothly at Lagrange point 2, focussed its telescope mirror and captured its first mesmerising test images. It soon became clear, however, that the mission was experiencing some hiccups.<p>Did anyone else wonder if Advent of Code had begun early this year ? ;)
This makes me wonder, do extra-solar space probes need to adjust their star charts to account for a change in their related location, or is the change negligible?
What a wonderful sci-fi headline.<p>"Guide Stars Found as Euclid's Navigation Fine Tuned"<p>(I included it here in case the headline is changed)