Late last month, the main system for storing and transmitting data from the Hubble Telescope's science instruments failed. Operators can still send commands to the 18-year-old orbiting observatory, but they can no longer retrieve the images that have made it famous. On 16 October, telescope engineers successfully booted up a backup for the faulty system. But as they were preparing to resume star-gazing, problems with the backup computer sent the entire spacecraft into safe-mode.
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