NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope’s wide-field camera 3 repaired

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The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was brought online again on Saturday, March 13, around 7:00 PM EST. The instrument was disabled as part of normal observatory safe mode activities that occurred on Sunday, March 7, in response to a software error on the main flight computer. After its recovery began on Thursday, March 11, WFC3 suspended the process due to a slightly lower voltage than normal voltage for a power source that caused internal instrument protection.

Analysis has shown that voltage levels in WFC3 power supplies have slowly decreased over time as their electronics age. The electronics experience colder temperatures when the hardware is turned off in safe mode. This factor, together with the force that pulls the instrument components while they are turned on again, contributed to the small voltage fluctuation that suspended the WFC3 repair operations. Further detailed analysis indicated that it would be safe to lower the low voltage limit slightly to avoid a future suspension, and it would be safe to restore the instrument back to its scientific condition.

The tool is now safely recycled. The standard calibration of the instrument and other pre-observation activities will be performed this week. WFC3 observations will then be included in the science timeline so that the instrument can collect data again and expand our understanding of the universe.