SPACE reports that NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope “went into a protective ‘safe mode’ early Sunday morning (March 7), but its handlers seem confident it will bounce back in relatively short order.” Hubble team members said on NASA’s Twitter account Sunday, “At ~4:00 a.m. EST [0900 GMT] on Sunday, the Hubble Space Telescope went into safe mode due to an onboard software error. All science systems appear normal and Hubble is safe and stable.”
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Tag: Safe Mode
NASA Says Recent Hubble Issues Likely Due to Aging Hardware
Spaceflight Now reports that NASA Astrophysics division director Paul Hertz said that the two issues the Hubble Space Telescope recently experienced are likely related to aging hardware. The Hubble Space Telescope is approaching the 31st anniversary of its launch. It went into safe mode on March 7 because of a software issue. Efforts to recover the telescope showed two other problems, including an aperture door glitch and a voltage alarm on the Wide Field Camera 3.
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Returns to Science Mode
Space News reported that NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope “resumed observations March 11 after a software error placed it in a protective safe mode several days earlier.” The “software error was traced to what an agency statement called an ‘enhancement’ recently uploaded to the spacecraft. That enhancement was intended to compensate for fluctuations from one of the telescope’s gyroscopes, but a glitch in the software caused a broader problem with Hubble’s main computer, triggering the safe mode early March 7.” Controllers “resolved the problem for now by disabling that software enhancement, and plan to correct the flaw and test the new software further before uploading it again.”
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NASA Reestablishes Contact with InSight Lander
CNET News reports that NASA’s InSight lander “went into safe mode – a mode designed to protect the lander – on Jan. 7 after a dust storm reduced sunlight to the solar-powered machine.” NASA JPL said Tuesday, “The mission’s team reestablished contact with InSight Jan. 10, finding that its power was holding steady and, while low, was unlikely to be draining the lander’s batteries.”
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