SPACE
NASA to Fix Hubble's Computer Hiccups via Remote Tech Support

On Wednesday, NASA will start a complicated remote-control fix of a major glitch that stopped the telescope from capturing and beaming down pictures. Hubble should be able to send stunning astronomy photos back to Earth by Friday, officials said.

Costly Crash

Key to the repair is activating a backup data-handling system that hasn't been turned on since the telescope launched in 1990. Science data will be rerouted to that system, the equivalent of driving a new route that hasn't been used before.

Art Whipple, manager of the Hubble systems management office, said he's confident the backup system will work, but "it's obviously a possibility that things will not come up."

He said space components on other satellites that have not been powered for 10 or 15 years have worked when activated.

Safe Mode

Early Wednesday, a team of about 40 engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in suburban Maryland will send hundreds of lines of complicated code up to Hubble. The entire observatory will be put into safe mode for the sixth time in its 18-year history as computer codes are rerouted. There is a risk that it will not come out of safe mode, but it is unlikely that the repairs will worsen Hubble's condition, Whipple said.

The rest of Hubble is working well, but the glitch means only a little science can be done.

If Wednesday's repairs work, NASA will keep using the backup system even when astronauts bring up a new one next year during their mission to do previously scheduled repairs.