NASA restores ailing Hubble Space Telescope with switch to backup computer, read more

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Friday, July 16 successfully switched to backup hardware on their observatory on Hubble Space Telescope following weeks of computer problem. The switch also included powering on the backup payload computer, on July 15. A problem with the original payload computer had occurred on June 13 when the computer halted which led to a delay in data science collection. 

NASA's 1980's computer suffers a glitch, shuts Hubble

According to NASA's official statement, the Hubble shut down due to a glitch in their payload computer from the 1980s that handles the telescope's science instruments. After over a month of Hubble running to technical issues, which were Hubble team thought occurred due to the spacecraft's Power Control Unit (PCU), the backup hardware was installed and the Telescope was revived. NASA's statement said that the team is now closely monitoring the activities of the hardware to ensure that everything is working properly. The statement added that the team is also working on the process for recovering the science instruments out of their safe mode configuration. The activity will go on for more than a day since the team is occupied with various procedures and ensures the instruments are at stable temperatures.

The official NASA Hubble official Twitter account updated the approved plans to switch the hardware on July 15. Following the announcement, Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the science mission directorate at NASA tweeted "So far so good - just so proud of the @NASAHubble team as I received the updates all day. Assuming continued progress, Hubble will be in science mode later this weekend! Looking forward to that first “after” picture,". 

More about the backup hardware switch 

In the lead up to switch the hardware, the Hubble Space Telescope team brought the backup PCU online as well as the backup Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF), which is on the other side of the Science Instrument and Command & Data Handling (SI C&DH) unit. The PCUs function is to divert power to the SI C&DH while the CU/SDF formats and then sends data and commands throughout the scope. Swapping of other pieces of the hardware was conducted to their backup versions to allow the telescope to function. The alternative hardware was then switched to, following which the team turned on the scope's backup payload computer, loaded it with flight software and returned Hubble to 'normal operations mode,' as per the statement. 

Hubble was launched in 1990 and has been observing the universe for 31 years now. Due to the telescope, more than 18,000 scientific papers have been published with its data as it has taken over 1.5 million observations of the universe. Some of Hubble's breakthrough discoveries have been the accelerating expansion of the universe, the evolution of galaxies over time, and the first atmospheric studies of planets beyond our solar system.