James Webb Space Telescope recovers from 2nd instrument glitch - Space.com
The Webb team conducted days of testing and evaluation after a "communications delay" on Jan. 15 caused issues with the telescope's Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument, according to a Tuesday (Jan. 31) statement(opens in new tab) from NASA.
"Observations that were impacted by the pause in NIRISS operations will be rescheduled," said the agency in its brief statement, noting the instrument was recovered successfully on Friday (Jan. 27).The initial issue was a "communications delay within the instrument, causing its flight software to time out," according to a Jan. 24 statement(opens in new tab) from NASA.In December, the JWST team also spent two weeks dealing with a glitch that kept putting the telescope into safe mode, making science observations difficult.A software glitch in the observatory's attitude control system was pinpointed as the issue, affecting the direction in which the telescope points.Elizabeth's reporting includes an exclusive with Office of the Vice-President of the United States, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission.