Side B Switched On

Earlier today (October 15), Hubble Space Telescope’s handlers completed switching systems over to the B-side, essentially working around the failure of the A side of the science instrument command and data handling computer that stopped working a couple of weeks ago.  At 6 p.m. (EDT) tonight the spacecraft began running a pre-science command load, where controllers send normal commands to control the spacecraft and resume communications satellite tracking with the telescope’s high-gain antennas.

People are working through the night to test the system. If all goes well, then HST could resume normal operations soon. The good news here is that — so far — things are looking good, especially when you consider that Side B has been sitting there waiting to be used for 18 years… and it seems to be working like a charm. Stay tuned!

And, to whet your appetite for more HST images, here’s a treat — an image of two spiral galaxies superimposed on each other as seen from our vantage point on Earth.

The background galaxy is about 780 million light-years away; the forground one is obviously closer, but they haven’t measured a distance to it yet.

These were imaged by HST’s Advanced Camera for Surveysd on September 19, 2006.  Lovely!

GO HST!!!