NASA's Hubble space telescope returns to science operations

The Hubble Space Telescope is deployed on 25 April, 1990 from the space shuttle Discovery.
NASA

NASA has returned the science instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope to operational status, almost a month after suspending their work due to trouble with its payload computer.

Hubble, which has been watching the universe over the past three decades, faced trouble with its payload computer on 13 June. As the computer halted, the instruments were kept in a safe configuration and science data collection was suspended.

The Hubble team has been investigating the cause of the payload computer problem since then. The team identified that the problem lies in the Power Control Unit (PCU) which ensures a steady voltage supply to the payload computer's hardware.

On 15 July, scientists at the US space agency successfully switched to backup hardware on the Hubble Space Telescope, including powering on the backup payload computer.

The collection of science data will now resume, NASA said on Saturday.

"All instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope are now in operational status, and science data is once again being collected to further our understanding of the universe," the agency said in a tweet.

NASA anticipates that Hubble will last for many more years and will continue making groundbreaking observations, working in tandem with other space observatories including the James Webb Space Telescope to further knowledge of the cosmos.

Launched in 1990, Hubble has taken over 1.5 million observations of the universe, and over 18,000 scientific papers have been published with its data.

It has contributed to some of the most significant discoveries of our cosmos, including the accelerating expansion of the universe, the evolution of galaxies over time, and the first atmospheric studies of planets beyond our solar system.