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Hubble Status Report

On December 15, Hubble engineers restarted the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) Cooling System (NCS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. However, it went back into safe mode prior to the NCS cooling down to its required temperature.

Other than that brief period in mid-December, engineers have not been able to successfully restart the NCS since deliberately placing it in safe mode in September when they loaded the new flight software into the NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer-1, or NSSC-1.

According to HST Program Manager Preston Burch another NCS restart attempt is unlikely before mid-January, moving the earliest return to NICMOS science to late-February, 2009.

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Last Updated
Apr 17, 2023
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NASA Hubble Mission Team

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