NASA Begins Switch to Backup Spacecraft Hardware

Nzinga Tull, Hubble systems anomaly response manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, works in the control room on July 15, 2021, to restore Hubble to full science operations. --- More info: Hubble’s payload computer, which controls and coordinates the observatory’s onboard science instruments, halted suddenly on June 13. When the main computer failed to receive a signal from the payload computer, it automatically placed Hubble’s science instruments into safe mode. That meant the telescope would no longer be doing science while mission specialists analyzed the situation. In response to the anomaly, NASA began a switch to backup spacecraft hardware on Hubble in response to an ongoing problem with its payload computer. This was a multi-day event. Science observations restarted the afternoon of Saturday, July 17.