Hubble Shut Down — NASA Investigates

Hubble shut down on 25 October, and investigators are searching for the reason why.

The Hubble Space Telescope seen in orbit over Earth. Image credit: NASA

Launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has already made its mark among the legendary telescopes of the ages. This revolutionary telescope continues to be one of the world’s greatest scientific instruments.

At 1:46 am EDT on 23 October, Hubble’s systems signaled controllers on Earth of the loss of a specific synchronization message. This data is used to provide timing information for instruments to respond to commands.

Controllers reset the instruments (Turning it off and turning it back on again is sometimes used on Hubble, as well.) Science operations resumed the morning following the Hubble shut down.

“At 2:38 a.m. EDT, Oct. 25, the science instruments again issued error codes indicating multiple losses of synchronization messages. As a result, the science instruments autonomously entered safe mode states as programmed,” NASA reports.

Sometimes, a Nap Makes All the Difference