spacetoday.net: NASA plans to "reboot" Hubble with backup computer

Posted: Wed, Oct 15, 2008, 9:30 AM ET (1330 GMT)
Hubble Space Telescope (NASA)

NASA engineers plan to switch the Hubble Space Telescope to a backup science computer this week after the primary computer failed in late September. Controllers will put the orbiting telescope into a protective safe mode on Wednesday and switch over to the "side B" science instrument command and data handling subsystem, a backup computer that has not been used since the telescope's launch in 1990. If all goes well the telescope will resume normal science operations by Friday. The failure of the main science computer in late September led NASA to delay the launch of STS-125, a Hubble servicing mission that had been scheduled for mid-October, so that astronauts could replace the failed computer with a ground spare. That repair mission is now scheduled for launch no earlier than mid-February.