‘Hubble will continue to build on its 31-year legacy, broadening our horizons with its view of the universe,’ says NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.<\/b>
\nUPDATE 7\/17: NASA says the science instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope have returned to \u00ab\u00a0operational status, and the collection of science data will now resume,\u00a0\u00bb after the spacecraft was switched to backup hardware on July 15, including a backup payload computer. \u00ab\u00a0The switch was performed to compensate for a problem with the original payload computer that occurred on June 13 when the computer halted, suspending science data collection,\u00a0\u00bb according to NASA, which anticipates that Hubble will now \u00ab\u00a0last for many more years.\u00a0\u00bb \u201cHubble is an icon, giving us incredible insight into the cosmos over the past three decades,\u201d says NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. \u201cI\u2019m proud of the Hubble team, from current members to Hubble alumni who stepped in to lend their support and expertise. Thanks to their dedication and thoughtful work, Hubble will continue to build on its 31-year legacy, broadening our horizons with its view of the universe.\u201d Original Story: A computer key to the operation of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has stopped working, and a number of attempts to restart it have so far failed. As NASA explains, the payload computer on the telescope \u00ab\u00a0halted\u00a0\u00bb shortly after 4 p.m. ET on June 13. This machine is a NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer-1 (NSSC-1) developed in the 1980s and used as part of the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling module in order to \u00ab\u00a0control and coordinate the science instruments onboard the spacecraft.\u00a0\u00bb The payload computer is meant to send a \u00ab\u00a0keep-alive\u00a0\u00bb signal to the main spacecraft computer, but that’s not happening since the failure, so the main computer triggered the automatic safety measure of placing all science instruments into a safe mode configuration. They will remain in that mode until NASA figures out a way to fix the payload computer. An investigation suggested the computer ceased to function due to a degrading memory module. As you’d expect, NASA has three backup memory modules it can switch between if necessary, but the command to initiate a backup module also failed. A further attempt on both the original and backup module failed again on Thursday evening, suggesting there’s another fault yet to be discovered. On Friday, NASA’s operations team started running more tests to collect more detailed information to help pinpoint the cause of the failure. That testing is ongoing with no further updates issued since then. There is a second computer that can be switched over to, but it depends on the same four independent memory modules. NASA says the 31-year-old telescope and all the science instruments remain in good health, but unless the payload computer can be brought back into operation they won’t be able to collect and send back any more valuable data.<\/p>\n