Officials with the Japanese space agency, JAXA, are scrambling to try to save a recently launched X-ray space telescope that broke off contact with Earth over the weekend and could be damaged and tumbling out of control.

Canada is a partner in the satellite, named Hitomi, which had a flawless launch on Feb. 17 after a weather-related delay. Since then, JAXA has been systematically starting up the telescope's various systems as a prelude to science operations later this year.

Hitomi failed to make contact with Earth during a scheduled communications window at 3:40 am Eastern time on Saturday, JAXA revealed on Sunday. NORAD satellite-tracking operations report that the satellite's orbital path suddenly dropped in altitude by a few kilometres about six hours earlier. A related "breakup notification" states that five "associated pieces" have been observed co-orbiting with Hitomi – an ominous clue that suggests it was either struck by another object or damaged by an internal breach, such as by the rapid release of pressurized gas, which would have propelled it into its new orbit.

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Hitomi's science mission is now in serious jeopardy unless engineers manage to re-establish contact with the spacecraft. JAXA said an "emergency headquarters" had been established under the agency's president, Naoki Okumura, to attempt recovery and to investigate the cause of the problem.

Luigi Gallo, an astronomer at St. Mary's University in Halifax and the Canadian principal investigator for the telescope, said the loss of contact with Hitomi was "very upsetting" for science team members who have been looking forward to a trove of data from Hitomi. The telescope is designed to detect the X-rays that emanate from some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe. If recovered, it is expected to shed light on the formation and behaviour of black holes and map the presence of dark matter in distant clusters of galaxies, among other objectives.

Dr. Gallo said he was unable to add anything to JAXA's account of what is officially described as a "communications anomaly" on Hitomi. A spokesperson for the Canadian Space Agency said the agency "is following the information on the loss of contact with Hitomi‎ as it emerges. We are fully supportive of JAXA's efforts."

On Sunday night, Paul Maely, an amateur satellite observer based in Arizona, video-recorded Hitomi passing overhead and reported periodic changes in brightness that peaked approximately every 10 seconds.

"That is a strong indication that it is tumbling … and tumbling quite fast," said Johnathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who maintains a widely read newsletter on satellite launches and space missions.

If Hitomi is tumbling, its antenna would only be pointed at communications stations on Earth briefly and by chance. This would explain a momentary signal that JAXA received from Hitomi after it was discovered to be out of contact.

The spectre of a tumbling, 2,700-kilogram spacecraft raises another concern because its solar panels are likely to be pointed away from the sun much of the time, which could lead to a terminal loss of power.

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Canada's contribution to Hitomi includes a $10-million laser measuring system, built by Neptec Design Group in Ottawa, that is needed to keep track of minute but constant changes in the separation of the two ends of the 12-metre-long instrument. The role is crucial to the mission since that separation must be known with extremely high accuracy in order for Hitomi to discern between X-rays carrying similar but slightly different amounts of energy.

The Canadian component was powered up for the first time in late February and fully commissioned by early March. The telescope, which cost close to half a billion dollars, also carries hardware provided by NASA and the European Space Agency.