14 DAY TRIAL // Some 3 weeks ago, Hubble suffered a major glitch that prevented it from capturing and sending back the amazing pictures that we were accustomed to. NASA planned to repair it this week and have it online by Friday, but the failure to reboot on Thursday is still keeping the telescope silent and only able to use a minor part of its instruments.
The 18-year-old device is starting to show clear signs of old age, as its troubles prove harder and harder to solve. The failure of the recent attempt sent it back into safe mode on Thursday. Experts at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland had high hopes for the success of the repairing mission that they started on Wednesday. And it seemed they would be right, until a double failure occurred late Thursday.
The technicians are still not sure what caused them or whether there's any link between them, but it appears that the instruments involved are a camera and the command and data-handling unit for science instruments. According to NASA, the software for Hubble's main camera (the Advanced Camera for Surveys or ACS), spotted too low a voltage in the system and immediately turned it off at about 18:30 GMT, followed in a matter of hours by the failure of the control system, which put Hubble back into safe mode.
Art Whipple, Hubble's manager from Goddard, stated that "We're in the early stage of going through a mountain of data that has been downloaded over the last 24 hours." NASA's spokesperson, Susan Hendrix, added that "If it's a commanding error and they figure it out, then they can bring it back up. But if it's more serious, they're going to need a little more time to troubleshoot." This means that the telescope may be offline for a longer period than previously anticipated. Also, the servicing mission scheduled for October may not be set in motion until next February the soonest, possibly even later.