The legendary Hubble Space Telescope has returned to observations, but now exoplanet hunter TESS has stopped collecting data for an unknown reason

by alex

The TESS team is trying to bring the device out of limbo after two incidents

April 29 NASA restored operation of the Hubble Space Telescope at full power, returning it to scientific activity after the telescope spent a week in «safe mode». However, the holiday spirit has dampened somewhat as the status of NASA's exoplanet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Search Telescope (TESS), remains in limbo.

Ironically, TESS also stopped collecting scientific data on April 23, the same day that «Hubble» was put into safe mode. The latter was stopped due to a malfunction in one of the three gyroscopes that the telescope uses to determine orientation, and the reason for the failure of the first is still unclear.

NASA engineers were preparing to operate Hubble, which launched in 1990 and explored space for 34 years, using a single gyroscope. An update on Tuesday showed that the problem had been resolved and the telescope was back to operating with three gyroscopes. The agency said in a statement that all of the telescope's instruments were connected and it had resumed scientific observations.

This particular gyroscope has caused problems with Hubble in the past, sending erroneous data to Earth and necessitating a shutdown in November 2023. Three working gyroscopes — the last of six installed in 2009 during the fifth and final servicing mission of «Hubble» shuttles.

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On the other hand, NASA stated that the reason for the TESS shutdown remains a mystery. The agency announced that the spacecraft team is investigating the root cause of the shutdown and is working to restore TESS to full operational status.

In addition, the agency continues to investigate the reason for TESS's separate transition into «safe mode» in the beginning of April. TESS went offline on April 8, but resumed operation on the 17th, and six days later went back into “safe mode.” The mission team is now focused on finding out if the two incidents are related.

TESS completed its primary mission in 2020 and its first extended mission in 2022. Now it is at the second extended stage. On April 30, NASA called on scientists to propose tasks for the third and fourth stages.

«Hubble» and TESS recently celebrated their anniversaries. On April 18, 2024, TESS turned 6 years old from its launch on Falcon 9 April 24, 2024, and «Hubble» spent 34 years in space — it was launched in 1990 on the shuttle «Discovery».

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