The Hubble Space Telescope is only cooling at altitude.
NASA
The Hubble Space Telescope takes the senior satellite equivalent of a mental health day. The godfather of all observatories went into safe mode around 01:00 PT Sunday due to a software error on board.
“All science systems look normal and Hubble is safe and stable,” NASA wrote on Twitter.
On Sunday ~ 4: 00 EST, the Hubble Space Telescope went into safe mode due to a software error on board. All scientific systems look normal and Hubble is safe and stable. The team is working on plans to bring it back safely to normal science operations. pic.twitter.com/6JlSSHisLd
– Hubble (@NASAHubble) March 8, 2021
NASA is hopeful that it can address the software flaw from the ground up and bring the telescope back to normal space operations.
Hubble has overcome much more serious issues in the past. In 2018 it is enter an extended safe mode after the failure of a gyro, which is a device to measure how fast the spacecraft rotates. The Hubble team managed to switch to a backup gyro and get Hubble up and running after being down for a few weeks.
Hubble is already well beyond its planned lifespan, which has been set at 15 years. This is now in year 30 of the operations. NASA would ideally see it take at least a while longer until the successor to the next generation James Webb Space Telescope is introduced.
The James Webb Telescope has been delayed several times, but is now going to launch this Halloween.
Get well soon, Hubble!
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