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It lives! Hubble Space Telescope reawakens after breakdown
The Hubble Space Telescope is back from the dead more than three tense weeks after it suffered an operational breakdown while carrying out its mission to study and record the distant stars and galaxies of the universe.
This weekend, NASA excitedly announced that Hubble returned to normal operations on Friday, and completed its first scientific observations since October 5 on Saturday.
Hubble, a joint NASA and European Space Agency project, had been out of action since its gyroscope failed. The gyro is a device that measures the speed at which the spacecraft is turning and is crucial in helping Hubble to turn and lock on to new targets.
Although the powerful telescope’s human operators successfully activated a backup gyro the next day, that device returned incorrect rotation rates.
We want to extend a huge thank you to the Hubble operations team for working around the clock to get this telescope back to normal science operations! pic.twitter.com/Z9TAh9Wm0B
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) October 27, 2018
READ MORE: NASA gives Opportunity rover a deadline to wake up, or be lost forever
Last week, the team commanded Hubble to perform various maneuvers and adjusted the gyro’s operational modes to clear what they believe was a blockage between components in the device.
Welcome back, @NASAHubble - we missed you
