The age-old Hubble Space Telescope is facing its most serious breakdown in more than a decade, and while NASA is excited to bring back the iconic observatory, the agency does not want to rush that fix-it process.On June 13, Hubble all of a sudden stopped doing science work in what objective engineers originally presumed was a case of a memory module gone bad.”Other than the truth that this specific anomaly indicates the observatory cant work up until we solve it, I do not think resolving it is different in kind than other anomalies that NASA offers with,” Paul Hertz, NASAs director of astrophysics, told Space.com in an interview.Related: The Hubble Space Telescope and 30 years that changed our view of the universeTroubleshooting spacecraft abnormalities is always a little tricky, Hertz noted, because engineers cant see or touch the systems and have very little information about whats taking place. Inspecting these systems is riskier and more difficult, Hertz said: The engineers must work with more pieces of the system than they have on previous tests, and they should include the spacecraft itself, rather than just the computer.Related: The best Hubble Space Telescope images of all time! Before any commands are sent to Hubble, the whole plan needs to be approved by an independent review board and a group of NASA managers, Hertz noted, given the possibility that a small error might put an end to Hubbles science for good.But while Hertz and the rest of NASA is taking the existing abnormality seriously, he stated the issue doesnt imply its time to say farewell to the precious observatory rather.

The venerable Hubble Space Telescope is facing its most major breakdown in more than a years, and while NASA aspires to bring back the iconic observatory, the company does not wish to hurry that fix-it process.On June 13, Hubble all of a sudden stopped doing science work in what objective engineers originally believed was a case of a memory module gone bad. The anomaly has turned out to be more slippery than that. Now, more than 3 weeks later on, NASAs team is still working to pin down precisely what went wrong on the observatory, which astronauts released from space shuttle Discovery in 1990 and last repaired in 2009. The anomaly has been harder than originally anticipated, NASA authorities are confident that Hubble has plenty more science up its sleeve.”Other than the reality that this specific abnormality implies the observatory cant work up until we solve it, I dont think solving it is different in kind than other anomalies that NASA deals with,” Paul Hertz, NASAs director of astrophysics, informed Space.com in an interview.Related: The Hubble Space Telescope and 30 years that changed our view of the universeTroubleshooting spacecraft abnormalities is always a little challenging, Hertz kept in mind, given that engineers cant see or touch the systems and have very little data about whats happening.”Its constantly a bit of a detective exercise to try to utilize the clues that we have and comprehend the hardware and what it can and cant try and do to find out what hypothesized problem could have yielded the information that we see,” Hertz stated. “The normal way that one troubleshoots an abnormality is you consider all the important things that might have gone wrong, you try to purchase them in order of likeliness, and after that you work your method down the list.”In the weeks since the abnormality, he stated, more than a lots experts have been working through that list of potential offenders, which spacecraft troubleshooters call the fishbone. In the beginning, the team anticipated to discover the error in Hubbles primary computer, but that theory didnt work out– switching to the backup computer didnt solve the issue. And the tests along the way were typically uncomplicated to execute.Now, the fishbone seems to be pointing instead to adjacent systems that connect with the computer, handling its information and power supply. Examining these systems is riskier and harder, Hertz stated: The engineers need to deal with more pieces of the system than they have on previous tests, and they need to include the spacecraft itself, instead of only the computer.Related: The finest Hubble Space Telescope images of all time!”To swap them out and swap in the redundant components on the other side would need commanding of the spacecraft, which is riskier because if you do something incorrect, youll leave the spacecraft in an unfavorable condition,” Hertz said.Because of the threats associated with the next treatments, NASA has actually slowed down the fixing procedure. “Were extremely deliberately not putting at any time pressure on the team,” Hertz stated. “I told them that the goal is to safely recuperate Hubble science operations, not to do it quickly.”The group took a break for the long Fourth of July holiday weekend, he stated, and is now back to work developing and examining procedures to switch to the backup modules of the information and power regulators on the spacecraft. Before any commands are sent out to Hubble, the whole plan must be approved by an independent evaluation board and a group of NASA supervisors, Hertz noted, provided the possibility that a little error could put an end to Hubbles science for good.But while Hertz and the rest of NASA is taking the existing anomaly seriously, he stated the issue doesnt imply its time to say farewell to the precious observatory quite yet. “Were all conscious that Hubble is getting older,” Hertz stated.”Parts in space do not fail on schedule, its a random thing,” he included. “Its been 12 years since we serviced Hubble and one thing finally stopped working. So simplistically, were going to go another five, 10, 12 years prior to something else stops working, and itll most likely be something which is still redundant therefore that will not be the end of the mission then, either.”Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.