An STS-125 crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis captured this image of NASA’s Hubble Space ... [+] Telescope on May 19, 2009. The Hubble

Hubble In Trouble: Should NASA Allow Billionaire’s Mission To Save It?

submited by

Style Pass

2024-06-05 20:00:07

An STS-125 crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis captured this image of NASA’s Hubble Space ... [+] Telescope on May 19, 2009.

The Hubble Space Telescope will burn up in Earth's atmosphere in the mid-2030s—unless NASA agrees to a daring plan to allow a billionaire to save it.

The world's premier visible light space observatory, originally launched in 1990 from the payload bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery and not visited by a maintenance crew since 2009, has been struggling lately.

After announcing on May 31 that it had suspended science operations a week prior due to a technical glitch, NASA announced Tuesday that it now expects the Hubble Space Telescope to continue science operations on one single gyroscope, a component that keeps it correctly oriented. With the goal of keeping Hubble operating in some form for as long as possible, its other two gyroscopes are now being kept in reserve. It should be using all of them.

Hubble’s current predicament follows long-term problems with its gyroscopes, which it also experienced in April and November. Of six gyroscopes replaced back in 2009, only three remain active. Hubble needs new gyroscopes. It also needs a technology makeover. In July 2021, it spent a month out of action because its payload computer temporarily failed.