Space

8341 readers

1 users here now

Share & discuss informative content on: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Space Exploration, Planetary Science and Astrobiology.

Rules

Be respectful and inclusive.
No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
Engage in constructive discussions.
Share relevant content.
Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
Use appropriate language and tone.
Report violations.
Foster a continuous learning environment.

Picture of the Day

The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula

Related Communities

🔭 Science

🚀 Engineering

🌌 Art and Photography

Other Cool Links

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Hubble glitch renews talk about private servicing mission (spacenews.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/10314304

NASA announced Nov. 29 that Hubble was in a safe mode because of a problem with one of its three operational gyroscopes. That gyro first triggered a safe mode Nov. 19 when it provided what NASA described as faulty readings. Spacecraft controllers restored operations of Hubble, only to see problems again Nov. 21 and 23.

The agency said in the statement that engineers were studying the problem and did not estimate when science operations would resume. Hubble can operate with just a single gyro, although with some loss of productivity, such as the inability to perform some solar system observations.

Hubble has six gyros, which were installed on the fifth and final shuttle servicing mission in 2009. Three of the six have since malfunctioned.

The news of this latest, temporary problem with Hubble prompted a response from Jared Isaacman, the billionaire backing the Polaris program of SpaceX private astronaut missions. “Put us in coach,” he posted on social media.

That was a reference to a study announced in September 2022 involving Isaacman, SpaceX and NASA to study the feasibility of a private mission to reboost and possibly repair Hubble using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. At the time Isaacman suggested that a Hubble mission could be the second of three planned Polaris missions.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is it really Hubble with the issue, or an NSA satellite? Or both?

https://www.space.com/16000-spy-satellites-space-telescopes-nasa.html

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Yes, it is really Hubble with the issue. As far as I know, the two spare NSA satellites are still in storage, and certainly haven't been launched.