Hubble instruments back online

Engineers at ground control spent yesterday, 16 October, activating in a planned sequence the instruments onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The three primary instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), were brought out of safe mode and the interface to the new B-channel established.

At around 18:00 CEST commands were issued to the spacecraft to use the new B-channel to activate the instruments and begin internal exposures and calibrations. The retrieval and review of this data should be completed by 18:00 CEST on 17 October and will involve comparing baseline exposures from the old and new channels. At around the same time a full schedule of science operations should resume.

Image credit: NASA.