By ‘eck. There’s trouble at t’Hubble

Old and weary, the Hubble space telescope was set to get a new lease of life on October 14th, when astronauts from space shuttle Atlantis planned to fit out the 18-year old telescope with lots of new kit, and repair numerous broken bits.

But then, at the last minute, Hubble stopped sending data from its data formatter and the telescope put itself into ‘safe mode’ and stopped work. To fix this bug would require expertise that those astronauts charged with carrying out the repairs don’t yet have. As a consequence the Shuttle trip to Hubble has been delayed until February next year at the earliest – which is when Discovery, the other shuttle, is going to be ready to act as a back up in case of emergency.

The astronauts were supposed to be going to visit Hubble for 11 days, to do 5 spacewalks. The telescope does have back up modes, but they haven’t been used for years says the Houston Chronicle .

The story has been widely picked up (LA TImes, New York Times, BBC – it seems that the telescope that has been sending us stunning images from space for the past 18 years has a special place in the hearts of the public.

Image: NASA