Hubble: You can not keep a good telescope for a long time

The Hubble Space Telescope seen by the Atlantis crew aboard the STS-125 in April 2009. Photo credit: NASA

In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope began its mission after being deployed by the shuttle Discovery April 25, 1990. Earlier this month, with respect to scientific operations, the satellite was decommissioned. At least for a short time.

Hubble is the flagship product of NASA's "Great Observatories" program. On October 5, a defective gyroscope (gyroscope) asked field engineers to suspend telescope operations and develop a way to get Hubble out of secure mode.

It took this team about three weeks to bring one of the backup gyroscopes online and problems to make it work properly (it had been offline for seven years). October 27 at 2:10 (6:10 GMT) – Hubble began to observe the distant galaxy DSF2237B-1-IR. The telescope used its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument to capture images in infrared wavelengths. The feat is all the more impressive as he resumed his "normal" activities a day earlier.

As previously detailed, gyroscopes measure rotational speeds of telescopes. Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer and other space telescopes use these devices to stay precisely focused on the targets that scientists want to achieve. The HST is operational again with three gyroscopes in operation.

If initial estimates were exceeded, Hubble could have been taken out of service at some point in 2005. With the layoffs and the procedures put in place and the maintenance missions that have visited the space shuttle in the past years, Hubble has far surpassed its guarantee. . It is hoped that the telescope will remain operational for the next decade.

The last Hubble maintenance mission, STS-125, was completed on the Space Shuttle Atlantis In 2009. NASA's fleet of shuttle orbiters now reside in museums or tourist locations, there is no way to carry out additional maintenance flights to the telescope.

Tagged: Hubble HST Space Telescope Main Stories

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Jason Rhian

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills doing internships with NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content to sites such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.