The Hubble Space Telescope is back up and running 鈥� but perhaps not for long.
The HST has been inactive since a unit that controls instruments and formats their output failed a month ago. Engineers got the telescope back online at the end of October by switching to a back-up unit, allowing it to start taking pictures again.
But no one knows how long the previously unused back-up will keep working 鈥� and a replacement control system due to be fitted by astronauts during a fourth and final servicing mission next February has itself been found to have 鈥済litches鈥�, delaying the mission until May at the earliest.
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If Hubble鈥檚 ageing batteries fail before they can be replaced, it could spin out of control and beyond recovery, says Hubble鈥檚 manager Preston Burch of NASA鈥檚 Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, though he says their performance is stable for now.
