Hubble Space Telescope lives: NASA fix gets backup hardware up and running - CNET

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope during deployment in 1990.

"NASA has successfully switched to backup hardware on the Hubble Space Telescope, including powering on the backup payload computer, on July 15," the space agency announced on Friday.

The Hubble team had been looking at the payload computer -- hardware dating back to the 1980s -- as the potential source of a memory problem.

"A series of multi-day tests, which included attempts to restart and reconfigure the computer and the backup computer, were not successful, but the information gathered from those activities has led the Hubble team to determine that the possible cause of the problem is in the Power Control Unit," NASA said.

As with the payload computer, the PCU is part of Hubble's Science Instrument Command and Data Handling unit.

"We're extremely happy to announce that Hubble is back online!" ESA's Hubble team tweeted on Friday.