Finally Some Good News: Hubble Space Telescope Back at Full Health

Hallelujah.

Back in Action

Good news! NASA's legendary Hubble Space Telescope is back to full science operations, according to a new update.

All four of its scientific instruments are live again after a software glitch forced the telescope into safe mode early last month — a testament to weeks of hard work to ensuring the continued existence of one of the most important space observatories in history.

The timing also couldn't be better, as NASA is getting ready to launch its long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope in a matter of weeks, allowing the two observatories to "work together well into this decade, expanding our knowledge of the cosmos even further," as NASA wrote in today's update.

Out of Sync

In October, NASA scientists encountered synchronization issues related to the commands its instruments received from Earth. Engineers attempted several fixes in early November, but the issues remained.

From mid to late November, scientists managed to bring scientific instruments back online one by one by pushing several changes to the software.

"The team will continue work on developing and testing changes to instrument software that would allow them to conduct science operations even if they encounter several lost synchronization messages in the future," today's update reads.

The Hubble Space Telescope is unquestionably starting to show its age, having been in operation for 31 long years. But it's not dead yet — despite the fact that the last time it was serviced in person by astronauts was over 12 years ago.

READ MORE: NASA Returns Hubble to Full Science Operations [NASA]

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