NASA: Briefing on Hubble Problem Status
“NASA will host a media teleconference at 12:30 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, Oct. 14, to brief reporters about the status of efforts to revive the data handling unit that failed on the Hubble Space Telescope in late-September. The failure halted almost all science operations on the orbiting observatory. Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio“
Notes: There is very little aging that goes on with an unpowered component in space. It is a very benign storage environment. We have very good confidence that this will work.
The spare unit on the ground was delivered in 1992. Getting everyone back up to speed when the unit was delivered in 1992 is a bit of a challenge. The unit will start testing some time next week – that testing will go on for several months.
This is a Block 1 orbital replacement unit. It is held on by 10 bolts and a single connector. It was made to be one of the easiest things to replace.
We will have a better handle on the status of the hardware in the first week of November.
