NASA scientists have fixed the Hubble telescope. The camera was switched on at 9:12 ET on Friday, June 30. "Normal camera science operations" – that's really cool space pictures to you and me – will start today, July 2, at 8 p.m. ET.
As we reported, Hubble went dark on June 19. The problem lay in the power supply voltages. The malfunctioning power supply is similar to the power supply on a laptop computer. NASA fixed it by switching to backup power.
The NY Times reports that something good came out of the process:
Restarting the camera also gave the engineers the opportunity to recalibrate it to operate at lower temperatures, reducing the amount of noise in images.
"It will actually produce more accurate, quantitative data than it did before," said David Leckrone, a senior project scientist working on the telescope at the Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md.The continued operation of the giant eye in the sky may depend on the success of Discovery mission now also scheduled for today. If it is not successful, Discovery may well be the last shuttle to head into space.
NASA Adminstrator Mike Griffin has said that he would not want to continue the shuttle program if there are any major problems during the Discovery’s mission.
Hubble has depended in the past on servicing by the space shuttle and it is not clear how long Hubble can last without future shuttle missions.
Article comments
1 - PoizonMyst
Woohoo! Excellent news ... I love a good space pic or two. Great to hear that the malfunction, and resulting solution, has turned up a positive for this legendary camera.
Let us also hope the weather improves around the Kennedy Space Centre by July 4th, and that the STS-121 Discovery mission is a success - best wishes to the shuttle crew.
2 - RJ Elliott
I have 07-04-2006 off work...so I may be there at KSC and have some pictures for ya'll... ;-)
3 - PoizonMyst
YAY LIFTOFF!!
So RJ, got some nice piccys for us?
*waits paitiently with baited breath*
4 - RJ Elliott
Sadly, no. :-/
I *did* see the launch from my rearview mirror as I was driving to the grocery store, however... ;-)