James Webb Space Telescope experiences 2nd instrument glitch - Space.com

Every spacecraft glitches occasionally, and even the most powerful space telescope ever launched isn't immune.

"There is no indication of any danger to the hardware, and the observatory and other instruments are all in good health," NASA officials wrote.

It can operate as a camera when JWST's other instruments are occupied, it can analyze light signatures to study the atmospheres of small exoplanets, it can conduct high-contrast imaging, and it has a mode tailored to finding distant galaxies.

In August, a grating wheel inside the observatory's Mid-Infrared Instrument(MIRI) started showing signs of friction.

By November, engineers had tracked down the cause of the issue and begun developing guidelines for safely using the affected mode, called the Medium Resolution Spectrometer.

In addition, in December, the observatory spent two weeks plagued by a glitch that repeatedly sent the telescope into safe mode, interrupting science observations.