The Hubble Space Telescope returns to action after a glitch of the gyroscope

The Hubble Space Telescope is back.

The iconic application field resumed normal operations on Friday, Oct. 26, after a three-week hiatus caused by problems with two gyroscopes maintaining orientation, NASA officials said in a report (Saturday). October 27).

Hubble 's first scientific work, which ended Saturday morning, consisted of observing the star – shaped galaxy DSF2237B – 1 – IR with infrared with the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. NASA officials. [The Hubble Space Telescope’s Most Amazing Discoveries]

Hubble's problems began on October 5, when a gyroscope failure sent the telescope into safe protection mode. Mission team members worked to recruit a backup gyroscope, but struggled to do so, as the gyroscope returned abnormal values. In particular, it measured higher rotational speeds than real ones.

"Last week, the operations team asked Hubble to perform many maneuvers and turns and toggle the gyro between different operational modes, which removed what was considered a blockage between internal components of the gyroscope that produced excessively high throughput values ​​"officials wrote in Saturday's update.

Further testing and monitoring showed that the gyroscope was operating normally. The mission team brought Hubble back online.

Hubble has a total of six gyroscopes, three of which must be functional for the system to operate with maximum efficiency. Two Hubble gyroscopes already being deflated, the failure of October 5 has eliminated the margin of error of the scope.

But that does not mean that repairing the emergency gyroscope was a matter of life and death for Hubble. The telescope can still make good observations in one or two gyroscope mode, NASA officials said. Had the back-up system continued to behave in an erroneous manner, the mission team would probably have opted for a gyroscopic mode, the other gyroscope being in reserve in reserve.

Hubble, a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency, was put into terrestrial orbit in April 1990 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. The initial images of the telescope were fuzzy because of a slight flaw in its main mirror, a problem that astronauts navigating in space had resolved in December 1993.

The astronauts then repaired and improved Hubble on four other maintenance missions. The last of them, in May 2009, included the replacement of the six gyroscopes.

A gyroscope problem recently shelved NASA's X-ray Chandra observatory, launched in 1999. But Chandra rebounded last Sunday (Oct. 21), after its managers set up a new configuration of gyroscope.

Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life, "Over there" will be published on November 13 by Grand Central Publishing. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally published on Space.com.