The Hubble Space Telescope, seen here during its initial deployment in 1990 by Space Shuttle Discovery, appears to have been fixed again after another

'Hubble is back!' Famed space telescope has new lease on life after computer swap appears to fix glitch

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2021-07-16 13:00:04

The Hubble Space Telescope, seen here during its initial deployment in 1990 by Space Shuttle Discovery, appears to have been fixed again after another near-death experience.

The iconic but elderly Hubble Space Telescope appears to have been resurrected again after a shutdown of more than a month following a computer glitch. Science has learned that following a switch from the operating payload control computer to a back-up device over the past 24 hours, Hubble’s operators have re-established communications with all the telescope’s instruments and plan to return them to normal operations today.

“Hubble is back!” Tom Brown, head of the Hubble mission office, emailed to staff at the Science Telescope Science Institute (STScI) at at 5.56 this morning. “I am excited to watch Hubble get back to exploring the universe.”

The problems started on 13 June when the payload computer that controls the science instruments and monitors their health spotted an error in communications with the instruments and put them into safe mode. Hubble’s operators initially thought that a memory module was at fault but switching to one of three back-up modules produced the same error. Various other devices were investigated and ruled out as the problem when the error persisted.