Space.com by Robert Lea 5/2/2024
Both space telescopes went down on April 23 — but, while Hubble is back, TESS remains in safe mode.
On Monday (April 29), NASA restored the Hubble Space Telescope to full operation, returning it to its scientific activities after the spacecraft spent a week in safe mode. The celebratory mood was dampened somewhat, however, because NASA's exoplanet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), remains in limbo.
Ironically, TESS also stopped collecting science data on April 23, the same day the Hubble Telescope was placed into safe mode. The latter's operations were halted due to a glitch with one of its three gyroscopes, which the space telescope uses to determine how it is orientated, while the reason for the former's lapse in service is still unclear.
NASA engineers had been preparing to operate Hubble, which launched in 1990 and has been surveying the cosmos for 34 years, with just one gyroscope. A NASA update on Tuesday (April 30) revealed that the issue had been resolved, and Hubble was back to operating with three gyros. In the statement, NASA said that all of Hubble’s instruments are online, and the telescope has resumed taking scientific observations.
More:
https://www.space.com/hubble-space-telescope-tess-exoplanet-hunter-safe-mode
