NASA faced a rare technical computer problem that halted the Hubble Space Telescope's observing translation beginning on Sunday, the agency said in a Wednesday release.
Specialists are working on the problem to restore contact with the onboard computer that coordinates the functioning of all the scientific tools on the orbital observation platform.
“After analyzing the data, the Hubble operations team is investigating whether a degrading memory module led to the computer halt. The team is preparing to switch to one of several backup modules on Wednesday, June 16,” the NASA said.
On Monday, the computer, which is over 30 years old, was reloaded, but the problem persisted.
Initially, it was planned that Hubble would work in orbit until 2014, to be replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), but an abundance of caution in the construction of the new enormous space science platform has resulted in a significant overshoot and lag in the JWST schedule, which has seen NASA postpone the launch, first to September 2015, and then to October 2018. The launch is currently scheduled for 31 October.
