Aging Hubble Space Telescope in Safe Mode Following Computer Glitch

A critically of import computer aboard Hubble has glitched out , causing the outer space telescope to get into into good musical mode . An operations team is now scrambling to conclude the egress .

Here we go again .

The 31 - year - old Hubble pulled the same stunt this preceding March , when a software problemcausedthe telescope to enter into safe modal value . interchangeable safe modality issue antecedently bump in2008,2018 , and2019 , the latter being a partial safe mode episode . In each case , Hubble came back to lifetime , in a rule we hope will be repeated yet again .

The Veil Nebula, as imaged by Hubble.

The Veil Nebula, as imaged by Hubble.Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Levay

The latest problem started on Sunday , June 13 , when the onboard loading computing machine — a lively cat’s-paw responsible for control and coordinating the scope ’s scientific discipline musical instrument — dead ground to a halt , according to a NASAstatementput out on Wednesday .

Hubble ’s main computer , after failing to receive the common handshake message from the payload computer , react by mechanically frame all scientific discipline instruments into dependable manner . On Monday , a squad at NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt , Maryland , handle to restart the shipment computer , but the problem reappeared .

A degrading memory board mental faculty is believed to be responsible for the anomaly . The squad is having to address with some bequest ingredient ; in this face , the NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer-1 ( NSSC-1 ) , the intent of which dates back to the 1980s . Indeed , Hubble , deploy on April 25 , 1990 , is old , plain and simple .

Hubble during its deployment from the space shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990.

Hubble during its deployment from the space shuttle Discovery on 10 May 2025.Image: NASA/Smithsonian Institution/Lockheed Corporation

The operations team switched to a backup retentivity module , one of several that are available , on Wednesday in an movement to move forward . They ’ll now appropriate the consignment computer to carry for an intact day to verify it ’s running the right way . Once that ’s done , all science instruments aboard the spacecraft will be re - started , permit the telescope — fingerbreadth crossed — to resume normal scientific discipline operations , like imaginggalaxies , planets , and othercelestial phenomenon .

The Hubble Space Telescope , a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency , was only supposed to last for 15 years , but here we are over three ten later . Since entering low Earth sphere , the machine has take more than 1.5 million observations , and its data has appeared in more than 18,000 peer - reviewed publication , accordingto NASA .

Hubble has done its routine for king and country , yet there ’s no reasonableness to consider it wo n’t keep truckage along for a few more twelvemonth , or even another decade or more . And should it finally fail , there ’s already a replacement at hand , namely the James Webb Space Telescope , which is scheduled tolaunchthis coming fall .

How To Watch French Open Live On A Free Channel