NASA successfully powered up a backup computer for the space observatory on July 16 after a month of Hubble being inactive due to technical issues.
On June 13, the Hubble Space Telescope ceased operations after a computer that processes data from the 1980s failed. Now, more than a month after Hubble encountered problems caused by the Power Control Unit (PCU), NASA has activated the backup hardware and restored the telescope to operation. The engineering team continues to monitor closely to ensure everything is functioning correctly, according to Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for science missions.
The Hubble Space Telescope is back to normal operation after a long period of issues.
During this repair effort, the engineering team not only powered up the backup PCU but also the Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF), located on the other side of the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SI C&DH) processor. The PCU supplies power to the SI C&DH while the CU/SDF formats and transmits data along with commands.
Other hardware components were also switched to their backup versions, allowing the telescope to perform its functions. After carefully powering on the replacement hardware on Hubble, engineers activated the backup data-loading computer, uploaded the flight software, and brought Hubble back to normal operational mode. In addition to monitoring the telescope and the new hardware, they also began to restore Hubble’s scientific instruments from a safe mode configuration that had been activated since June 13.
Restoring all scientific instruments took over a day as the engineering team needed to ensure that all equipment was at stable temperatures and could operate safely. Once the telescope’s scientific instruments exited safe mode, they could calibrate them and resume scientific operations.
This is not the first time the Hubble has faced technical issues in space, but the observatory, launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, has not had astronaut maintenance since 2009. Despite technical malfunctions, such as the primary mirror error fixed in 1993, Hubble has continuously provided some of the most fascinating images of the universe ever captured.
