The Hubble Space Telescope was launched before Google, before the smartphone era, and before digital cameras became normal, and NASA engineers have now reconfigured it to keep observing the universe on a single working gyroscope after 35 years aloft.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched before Google, before the smartphone era, and before digital cameras became normal, and NASA engineers have now reconfigured it to keep observing the universe on a single working gyroscope after 35 years aloft.

The Hubble Space Telescope returned to science operations on 14 June 2024 in a new pointing configuration that uses one of its three remaining gyroscopes instead of three. NASA announced the transition during a media teleconference on 4 June 2024, after the telescope entered safe mode on 24 May because of repeated faulty readings from one of the gyros. Mark Clampin, then director of NASA’s astrophysics division, framed the decision as a way to e…