After two months of futile rescue attempts, Japans space agency has all but abandoned an orbiting X-ray telescope that spun out of control due to a major solar flare and an extreme geomagnetic storm in July.

Japanese and American scientists collaborated on the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA), which studied black holes, dark matter and evolution of the universe.

The September 20 announcement by Japans Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) was posted on an internet website at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

"We regret we must announce that the possibility that ASCA will return to observation mode is very small, almost hopeless, although we will monitor ASCA status until its reentry into the atmosphere" by mid 2001, said ISAS officials H. Inoue and Fumiaki Nagase.

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Their statement cited the failure of "long, unrewarding efforts to recover ASCA," and said all planned observations by astronomers were canceled.

ASCA, originally named Astro D, was launched February 20, 1993, on a Japanese M-3S launch vehicle and was supposed to work for only five years. Instead, astronomers had hoped to continue observations until reentry next year.

Instead, a major flare shot off the sun July 14, hurling a coronal mass ejection of electrified gas at Earths magnetic field and triggering the worst geomagnetic storm of the current 11-year solar cycle.

The intense activity expanded Earths atmosphere, increasing drag on ASCA, which had an orbital low point of 273 miles (440 kilometers). The drag applied a torque that made the satellite spin and put it into a hibernation-like "safe hold." The spin prevented ASCAs solar panels from adequately charging the batteries, which then were exhausted.

"After the event, we attempted all possible and considerable operations to recover the aspect [satellite orientation] and to charge up the battery," Inoue and Nagase said. "However, there has been no improvement so far. We suspect that the battery cells may have suffered serious, unrecoverable damage."

When ASCAs solar cells face the sun, limited power lets Japanese officials monitor the satellite, which spins once every three minutes. That happens daily when ASCAs signal is acquired by NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Inoue and Nagase noted that ASCA survived longer than expected. They thanked astronomers and engineers who participated in the mission, and declared that "the successful collaboration between Japanese and U.S. scientists has produced tremendous, fruitful scientific results."