Orbital Sciences, which assembled the craft, will conduct a review of the spacecraft operations before passing the controls to NASA in the next few weeks, according to project manager Ron Zenone, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Acrimsat faced peril after its launch failed to set the spacecraft pointing directly toward the sun. The spacecraft, whose position is controlled by spinning magnetic bars, was programmed over the course of three months to fix its stance.

Over three months, the team made nine adjustments before the craft was finally pointed correctly, according to Zenone.

Adjusting the stance of Acrimsat posed an extra challenge for NASA, because the craft lacks thrusters that can simply be fired to correct position. The project team had to take Earth's magnetic field into consideration before altering the spin of the magnetic bars that control the spacecraft. A bad calculation could have sent the craft out of control.

"We were trying to make sure we didn't cause the spacecraft to go into an unwieldy attitude control," Zenone said. "We were making minor adjustments, taking data, analyzing it and making other changes, and being safe."