The European Space Agency (ESA) reported Oct. 31 that a failure in the electrical power system on board the Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative (SSETI) Express spacecraft is preventing the batteries from charging, resulting in a shutdown of the satellite. Ground station controllers in Aalborg, Denmark, have not had any contact with SSETI Express since Oct. 28, though there is a small possibility of recovery, ESA said.

SSETI Express satellite was designed and built by European university students under the supervision of ESA’s Education Department. The spacecraft was designed to take images of Earth and function as a radio transponder, as well as act as a test bed for projects that include a cold-gas attitude control system. SSETI Express, similar in size and shape to a washing machine, also carried three 1-kilogram picosatellites, ESA said. The three picosatellites deployed and were able to begin their missions, ESA said.

SSETI Express is the second of seven spacecraft to experience problems after the Oct. 28 launch on a Kosmos 3M rocket. According to an Oct. 28 report form Russian news agency Itar-Tass, the Russian satellite Mozhayets-5 failed to detach from the third stage of its Kosmos 3M rocket.