Oct 17, 2008 3:02 pm US/Eastern
NASA Dealing With Ailing Hubble Telescope
CAPE CANAVERAL (AP) ―
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Images from the Hubble Space Telescope, courtesy: NASA
NASA
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope looks like its heading towards its own black hole. Efforts by engineers to try and save the 18-year-old observatory haven't been going so well, after it stopped sending pictures three weeks ago.
Officials had hoped to have the telescope back in business Friday. But a pair of problems cropped up Thursday, and now recovery operations are on hold.
Flight controllers at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., began the lengthy process of restoring data transmission on Wednesday. Everything was going well, until late Thursday afternoon.
The problems involved one of Hubble's cameras and the command and data-handling system for science instruments, said NASA spokeswoman Susan Hendrix. That system failed late last month and prevented the telescope from capturing and beaming down data used to create the stunning pictures of the cosmos for which Hubble is known.
Because of the breakdown, NASA delayed its final Hubble repair mission by shuttle astronauts that was set for October. The mission won't happen until at least February, possibly later.
The recovery efforts involved switching to a backup channel for the command and data-handling system that had been dormant since the telescope was launched in 1990.
Hendrix said it was too soon to know the severity of the latest trouble.
"If it's a commanding error and they figure it out, then they can bring it back up," Hendrix said. "But if it's more serious, they're going to need a little more time to troubleshoot."
Click here to read the latest updates on the telescope.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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