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NASA’s Extremely Delayed Webb Telescope Takes Another Blow, Literally This Time

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The Webb telescope in the cleanroom at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, October 15, 2021.
Photo: NASA/Chris Gunn

A processing anomaly has caused an unexpected vibration to course through the entire Webb telescope just weeks before launch. An investigation is now underway to determine if the incident somehow damaged the observatory.

Honestly, nothing surprises me anymore about the Webb Space Telescope, but this latest incident is total cringe. After decades of planning, years of delays, and painstaking work to make sure this $10 billion observatory will work as intended, there’s been some kind of mishap. It may turn out to be nothing, but this last-minute snafu certainly seems on-brand for the beleaguered project.

Webb was supposed to launch on December 18, but that’s not going to happen. The space telescope is currently at a satellite preparation facility in Kourou, French Guiana, where Arianespace is preparing the instrument for launch aboard its Ariane 5 rocket. Ariane technicians were getting ready to mount the telescope to the launch vehicle adapter when a “sudden, unplanned release of a clamp band—which secures Webb to the launch vehicle adapter—caused a vibration throughout the observatory,” according to NASA.

A vibration throughout the observatory. 

Oof. Like, not a vibration tied to a single component, or a vibration limited to a certain section. No—a vibration throughout the observatory. Sounds like they rang this thing like a bell, though to be fair we don’t yet know the full severity of the shaking.

We also don’t know the timing of the incident, but it likely happened very recently. An anomaly review board led by NASA has prompted testing to make sure the incident didn’t damage any of Webb’s components. NASA says it will provide an update by the end of this week.

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA, was asked about the incident at a press conference held yesterday to discuss the upcoming DART asteroid mission. Webb, being close to launch, is no longer equipped with sensors that were used while the spacecraft was being transported to French Guiana, he said, so without these sensors, the team is having to run calculations to estimate the amount of force endured by the telescope during the incident. Functional tests are being done on a “small number of subsystems” to “be sure that nothing happened,” Zurbuchen added.

Launch of Webb will now happen no earlier than December 22—a minimum delay of four days. Of course, that assumes a happy result from the ongoing investigation. Once in space, Webb will use infrared to observe the atmospheres of distant exoplanets, study stars, and discover ancient galaxies that emerged shortly after the Big Bang.

Hard to believe, but Webb was originally supposed to launch in 2007. Ongoing development challenges, the covid-19 pandemic, and problems with Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket have resulted in a seemingly endless succession of delays. The telescope was supposed to launch in 2014, 2018, 2019, and then 2020, and the current year has already seen several delays (it was supposed to go up in March, October, and November). Adding insult to injury, the Webb telescope has been heavily criticized for bearing the name of a NASA administrator who was involved in the widespread persecution of LGBTQ government employees during the “lavender scare” of the mid-20th century.

Related: Extremely Delayed James Webb Space Telescope Delayed Again, Again. 

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NASA Has a New Plan to Wake Up the Hubble Space Telescope

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The Hubble Space Telescope.
Photo: NASA

Hubble Space Telescope, with all but one of its science instruments currently in safe mode, could soon be back in business, as mission team members prepare to roll out a recovery plan.

The Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument is the only science tool currently working on Hubble. NASA revived this camera on November 7, and it’s been gathering scientific data ever since. This particular instrument was the first to be brought back from safe mode because it has the smallest potential of creating future complications should lost synchronization messages continue to occur, according to NASA.

Synchronization messages, which allow Hubble’s instruments to accurately respond to data requests and commands, have been pegged to this latest Hubble headache. The 31-year-old telescope is otherwise fine, but a flurry of missing synchronization messages caused its science instruments to automatically enter into safe mode on October 25. Team members have been searching for the root cause of the problem ever since, requiring NASA to suspend Hubble’s usual astronomical duties.

With the Advanced Camera for Surveys back online and functioning properly, the team is now looking to revive Hubble’s other instruments, as NASA explained in a statement. No additional missed synchronization messages have been detected since November 1, another good sign.

Mission specialists have apparently found a way for Hubble’s science instruments to track and respond to missed synchronization messages and not have the entire space telescope go to sleep as a result. Hubble’s payload computer, which monitors, controls, and coordinates Hubble’s science instruments, will similarly be modified. The proposed changes mean the telescope will truck through and keep working in the event of multiple missed synchronization messages. NASA says these changes won’t pose a danger to Hubble.

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In terms of next steps, the team needs to determine the order in which it will restore Hubble’s science instruments, followed by tests to make sure the modifications are working as intended. They’re also going to keep looking for the root cause of the error, which hasn’t been identified. NASA expects the reboot to take several weeks, and while the next instrument to be restored has not been chosen, the team intends to look at the steps needed to restore Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.

Nothing is set in stone at this point, and no estimate has been given for when Hubble will fully return to normal operations. The space telescope has glitched out many times before—this is the third time this year that Hubble has gone into safe mode—but NASA has managed to bring it back each time.

In related news, NASA has extended the Hubble operations contract. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) in Washington was awarded the $215 million extension, which expires on June 30, 2026. As before, AURA will support Hubble at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. The contract covers science ground system development, science operations, the management of science research awards, public outreach support, and the archival of mission data at the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said the space agency expects Hubble to “have many more years of science ahead, and to work in tandem with the James Webb Space Telescope,” which is scheduled to launch on December 18 from French Guiana.

Indeed, this latest setback notwithstanding, there’s no reason to believe that Hubble, launched in 1990, can’t continue working until the next decade. Just gotta keep gettin’ over the hurdles this cranky telescope keeps throwing at us.

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Hubble Space Telescope Enters Safe Mode for Third Time in 2021

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The Hubble Space Telescope.
Image: NASA

The Hubble Space Telescope has entered into a protective safe mode, in what is now an upsettingly regular occurrence. Mission team members have yet to identify the source of the latest issue.

The problem began during the early hours of October 23, when error codes produced by Hubble’s science instruments pointed to the “loss of a specific synchronization message,” according to a NASA press release. These messages enable the instruments to accurately respond to data requests and commands. Mission team members performed the required reset, allowing operations to resume the following morning.

But at 2:38 a.m. EDT on October 25, the same thing happened again, but this time the science instruments churned out a batch of loss of synch messages. Hubble automatically went into safe mode as a result, and it’s been in this state ever since. Science operations are currently on hold, but the NASA team insists that Hubble’s instruments are “healthy” and that the space telescope will stay in safe mode for the duration of the investigation.

Launched in 1990, the storied telescope has provided spectacular views of the cosmos and invaluable astronomical data. Hubble, a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency, was only supposed to last 15 years, but it just keeps on ticking, despite the occasional glitch. Current indications suggest Hubble will remain operational into the late 2020s and possibly even into the 2030s.

Mission specialists are trying to get a handle on the current situation—an apparent synchronization issue—by analyzing spacecraft data and system diagrams. They’re also working to develop new ways of collecting data from Hubble, a process that’s expected to take at least a week. No timetable has been set for Hubble to return to its regularly scheduled programming. We reached out to NASA for more details, but no new information was provided.

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This latest incident marks the third time that Hubble has entered into safe mode in 2021, and we can only hope that, like all previous times this has happened, the spacecraft will wake from its slumber. The situation looked dodgy on June 13 of this year, when Hubble entered into safe mode due to a failed Power Control Unit. It took NASA a full month to bring Hubble back, which it finally managed to do by switching to backup hardware. Hubble also entered into safe mode this past March on account of a software glitch, as well as in 2008, 2018, and 2019.

Hubble is awesome, and we hope to see it back as soon as possible, but its successor, the Webb space telescope, is waiting in the wings. Launch of the next-gen space telescope is currently scheduled for December 18, 2021 at 7:20 a.m. EDT.

More: NASA Advisor Quits Over Space Telescope Named for Homophobic Administrator.

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NASA Advisor Quits Over Space Telescope Named for Homophobic Administrator

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James Webb Space Telescope during testing in 2017.
Image: NASA/Desiree Stover

Astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz has resigned from a NASA advisory committee on account of the space agency’s perceived mishandling of a request to rename the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. Webb was a NASA administrator during the 1960s who aided in the persecution of LGBTQ employees.

It’s fair to say that Lucianne Walkowicz, an astronomer from the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, is seriously upset right now—and for good reason. On September 28, the same day Walkowicz was struck by a car, they learned that NASA had decided, for reasons not made clear, that there was insufficient reason to rename the soon-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In response, Walkowicz penned a caustic open letter to NASA announcing their resignation from the NASA Astrophysics Advisory Committee (APAC), a resignation that took effect October 12.

For NASA, this represents a serious loss. As a scientist, Walkowicz has contributed to our understanding of stellar activity and how it impacts the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets and the potential for human activity on Mars. Walkowicz has even had an asteroid named after them.

That Walkowicz wants to move on from NASA is wholly understandable. James Webb (1906-1992) enforced anti-gay policies at the U.S. State Department and at NASA, where he served as administrator from 1961 to 1968. Former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe came up with the idea of naming the telescope after Webb nearly 20 years ago. Earlier this year, a petition asked that NASA rename the next-gen telescope given Webb’s involvement in the Lavender Scare—a time when queer government employees were dismissed or forced to resign.

NASA responded by launching an investigation into the matter. APAC had been asking NASA for updates, but the committee was told to wait for the results of the investigation, which the space agency described as being “thorough.” Abruptly and with minimal detail, NASA announced on September 28 that no further actions would be taken, saying the investigators “found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name.”

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NASA was very subdued about the matter, speaking only to reporters at NPR (as best I can tell) and refraining from issuing a formal statement. Writing in their open letter, Walkowicz described NASA’s decision to “quietly email just a few selected journalists” as being “flippant” and “pathetic.” Walkowicz writes that the tepid response speaks to larger issues at the space agency:

It is evident from this choice that any promises of transparency and thoroughness were, in fact, lies. It also seems clear that NASA would prefer a committee of Yes Men, a committee that co-signs things that NASA had already planned to do, or perhaps chides them about moderate course corrections that don’t actually challenge NASA at all. It is also clear that while Sean O’Keefe can just suggest James Webb as a telescope namesake because he thinks it’s a nice idea, queer people are required to justify their opinions via an investigation.

Walkowicz said they weren’t optimistic about the name change, especially given that current NASA administrator Bill Nelson was opposed to same-sex marriage until 2013.

NASA’s response “sends a clear message” about the space agency’s position on the “rights of queer astronomers,” wrote Walkowicz, and “it also speaks clearly to me that NASA does not deserve my time.” They’re vexed that “NASA has so little insight into its own participation in systematic oppression,” citing the racial injustices portrayed in the film Hidden Figures.

“Of course, I am not the first queer person to be actively discouraged from NASA service,” wrote Walkowicz, “But I’m not the first and won’t be the last driven out of a NASA space, where evidently straight people’s opinions are valued and taken more seriously than queer people’s experiences.”

Looking ahead, Walkowicz said they will refrain from referring to the space telescope by its official name, and they’re encouraging others to do the same. Meanwhile, the struggle to rename the telescope after Harriet Tubman continues.

More: Hundreds of Astronomers Denounce Arrest of Native Hawaiians Protesting Thirty Meter Telescope



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NASA Won’t Change Name of James Webb Space Telescope

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The fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope.
Image: NASA

The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch later this year, and NASA has no intention to rename the instrument despite complaints that it’s named after a man who presided over the firings of gay and lesbian government employees, NPR reports.

In just a few months, finger’s crossed, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will park itself in the second Earth-Sun Lagrange point, from where it will gaze upon the cosmos. Far from the noise and clutter of low Earth orbit, the $10 billion telescope will peer at ancient galaxies, dust disks around stars, and the atmospheres of distant exoplanets. Profoundly, JWST even has the potential to detect biosignatures consistent with alien life.

But for each mind-bending discovery this telescope is certain to make, we’ll have to cringe at its unfortunate name and link to the Lavender Scare—a despicable era in American history when gay and lesbian government employees were fired or forced to resign on account of their sexuality. James Webb, NASA administrator from 1961 to 1968, actively participated in the Lavender Scare, yet the most powerful space telescope ever built was named in his honor.

Upon being asked to change the name, NASA launched an investigation to learn about Webb’s role during the Lavender Scare. The now-concluded investigation apparently found nothing deemed serious enough to take action.

“We have found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told NPR.

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The space agency provided few details, aside from saying historians were consulted on the matter. Karen Fox, a senior science communications officer at NASA, echoed Nelson’s words when speaking to NPR, saying: “We’ve done as much as we can do at this point and have exhausted our research efforts,” but those efforts “have not uncovered evidence warranting a name change.”

Artist’s depiction of the JWST in space.
Illustration: NASA

James Webb (1906-1992) was a key figure during NASA’s Mercury and Gemini programs, which set the stage for the crewed Apollo missions to the Moon. His contributions to space exploration are not in question, but his actions as a public servant most certainly are.

The name for the telescope was chosen by former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe. He actually broke with tradition, as telescopes are typically named after prominent scientists. Neither O’Keefe nor Webb come from scientific backgrounds. The decision to name the telescope happened in 2002, but it wasn’t until 2015 that criticisms of the name began to emerge. Dan Savage, a relationship and sex advice columnist and gay rights activist, kickstarted the conversation in his article, “Should NASA Name a Telescope After a Dead Guy Who Persecuted Gay People in the 1950s?”

“Webb didn’t just ascribe to the prevailing anti-gay prejudices; he enforced them and, again, destroyed careers and lives in the process,” wrote Savage, who was content to let the name stay. “We have so much to fight for right now, so much work to do, that going after a dead guy seems like a distraction we can’t afford. It’s also likely to be a battle we would lose. So I’m thinking we let this guy have his telescope,” he said.

The issue escalated earlier this year following the launch of a petition, which has since been signed by over 1,200 people. The petition asked that NASA rename the space telescope, given Webb’s actions while working for the U.S. State Department and NASA.

“Archival evidence clearly indicates that Webb was in high-level conversations regarding the creation of this [anti-gay] policy and resulting actions,” according to the petition, adding that it was “under Webb’s leadership” that “queer people were persecuted.”

An article published in Scientific American this past March forcefully argued for a name change, but to no avail. “The records clearly show that Webb planned and participated in meetings during which he handed over homophobic material. There is no record of him choosing to stand up for the humanity of those being persecuted,” those authors wrote.

NASA, it would seem, would like to see this controversy fade away and not have to go through the hassle and expense of renaming a telescope that’s supposed to launch in December. Still, NASA should be more forthcoming about the investigation and do a better job of explaining its reasoning to the general public.

So the name will remain, and we’ll find ourselves repeating it ceaselessly over the coming years—but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.

More: A Powerful New Telescope Is About to Get Screwed by Elon Musk’s Starlink Constellation, Research Suggests.

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NASA won’t rename James Webb Space Telescope despite controversy

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NASA says it has no plans for renaming the James Webb Space Telescope, which was named after a former administrator who permitted the government to discriminate against lesbian and gay employees.

Speaking to NPR, NASA Administrator Bill NelsonClarence (Bill) William NelsonNASA won’t rename James Webb Space Telescope despite controversy FAA unveils new system to reduce planes’ times on taxiway Technology is easy but politics is hard for NASA’s Lunar Human Landing System MORE said, “We have found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope.”

The telescope is regarded as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and is expected to launch by the end of this year.

However more than a thousand people signed a petition earlier this year calling for the telescope to be renamed due to Webb allegedly being complicit in the purge of LGBT people from government service, known as the “Lavender Scare.”

The letter reads that “under Webb’s leadership, queer people were persecuted. Those who would excuse Webb’s failure of leadership cannot simultaneously award him credit for his management of Apollo.”

After the letter was made public, NASA opened an investigation to examine the allegation against Webb.

Senior science communications officer Karen Fox told NPR, “We’ve done as much as we can do at this point and have exhausted our research efforts.”

“Those efforts have not uncovered evidence warranting a name change,” she added.

NPR noted that the decision to name the telescope after Webb — which breaks from the tradition of naming telescopes after famous scientists — was made by former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe.

O’Keefe, who like Webb also does not come from a scientific background, said he decided to name the telescope after Webb following a casual conversation with other NASA employees and said others seemed to like the idea. While surprised by the outrage, O’Keefe said he understood the concern.

“This is an important matter of history, to understand how it is we could possibly have tolerated the purging of talented professionals on the basis of their personal preferences,” O’Keefe said to NPR. “That’s just so objectionable. No question about it, and I applaud the effort to surface the visibility and awareness of it.”

However, he added that he hadn’t seen evidence to suggest Webb was directly involved in the purging of LGBT people from government jobs.



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NASA Brings Hubble Space Telescope Back Online After Month in Safe Mode

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NASA was able to bring Hubble Space Telescope’s backup payload computer online, according to a Twitter post from the telescope’s social media team. The announcement will bring a sigh of relief to space lovers, following a month of anxiety over whether the aging technology could be resuscitated at all after it slipped into a non-operational safety mode in mid-June.

Now 31 years old, Hubble is a senior citizen as far as space technology goes. Its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is slated to launch this fall after numerous delays. Hubble has jumped into safe mode numerous times before, most recently in March. But this sojourn went on for so long that it was starting to seem possible that the telescope had finally observed its last galaxy.

At first, the NASA team believed that the telescope’s automatic shutdown could have been caused by an old memory module. But yesterday, the team settled on the Power Control Unit (PCU) as the real problem. The PCU powers the telescope’s payload computer constantly; if the 5 volts of electricity it provides ever falters or fluctuates, the telescope pauses its operations. Attempts to reset the PCU didn’t work, so NASA decided to switch to backup hardware. It was a desperate measure after numerous attempts to troubleshoot.

The switch to backup hardware evidently proved the cure. According to a NASA press release, the team has now begun recovering the scientific instruments aboard the spacecraft from their respective safe modes, a process that will take most of today. After they’re sure that the instruments are at stable temperatures and calibrated properly, Hubble will resume normal science operations.

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Soon, the burden we put on this revered telescope will be lessened, as the powerful JWST telescope arrives in space and begins observing the cosmos. But it’d be great for the two to work in tandem and for Hubble to live to see its heir take the space telescope throne.

More: Lego’s New Space Shuttle Discovery With Hubble Telescope Will Send Your Inner NASA Nerd Into Orbit



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NASA Identifies ‘Possible Cause’ of Hubble Telescope Glitch

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The Hubble Space Telescope.
Image: NASA

The Hubble recovery team thinks it’s finally tracked down a problem that’s kept the space telescope out of commission for over a month.

The problem started on June 13, when an onboard computer suddenly ground to a halt. All science instruments on Hubble went into safe mode as a result, and it’s been that way ever since. The telescope is otherwise fine, but normal operations have been suspended.

The problem is with the payload computer, which controls and monitors Hubble’s science instruments. It’s the most serious glitch to afflict Hubble in years, raising concerns that the aging telescope might finally be finished. Launched in 1990, Hubble has conducted over 1.5 million observations and contributed significantly to our understanding of the solar system, galaxies, and the universe in general.

The Hubble recovery team has tried all sorts of tests over the past few weeks (a running list of measures taken can be seen here), along with attempts to restart and reconfigure the payload computer, but nothing has worked. Data collected during these attempts has now led the team to determine that the “possible cause” of the glitch has something to do with the Power Control Unit (PCU) located on the telescope’s Science Instrument Command and Data Handling unit, according to NASA.

The PCU supplies electricity to the payload computer. Equipped with a power regulator, the PCU provides a steady 5 volts of electricity to both the payload computer and its memory modules. As NASA explains:

A secondary protection circuit senses the voltage levels leaving the power regulator. If the voltage falls below or exceeds allowable levels, this secondary circuit tells the payload computer that it should cease operations. The team’s analysis suggests that either the voltage level from the regulator is outside of acceptable levels (thereby tripping the secondary protection circuit), or the secondary protection circuit has degraded over time and is stuck in this inhibit state.

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Commands to reset the PCU haven’t worked, so it’s probably borked. In response, NASA management has approved a plan to switch over to backup hardware. This rescue operation is scheduled to start today, and it could take a few days to complete.

Hubble has experienced a slew of problems over the years, but NASA always seems to find a way to bring the telescope back. Hubble may be old, but it’s expected to remain in operation until the 2030s. Should all go well, and should Hubble return to service, it could serve alongside the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch later this year.

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Astronomers discover trio of young planets orbiting a teenage sun in a river of stars

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Floating in a stream of young stars, astronomers have spotted a trio of neighboring planets similar to Earth, orbiting a much younger version of our own sun. 

The team found the young, hot worlds using observations from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), according to a new study in The Astronomical Journal. The planets are orbiting a star called TOI 451. 

The system is located in a newly-discovered Pisces-Eridanus stellar stream, which is less than 3% the age of our solar system, stretching across one-third of the sky. These so-called rivers of stars form when the gravity of our galaxy, the Milky Way, rips apart clusters of stars and dwarf galaxies, forming an elongated grouping that continues to disperse into a stream over time. 

“This system checks a lot of boxes for astronomers,” said lead researcher Elisabeth Newton in a statement Friday. “It’s only 120 million years old and just 400 light-years away, allowing detailed observations of this young planetary system. And because there are three planets between two and four times Earth’s size, they make especially promising targets for testing theories about how planetary atmospheres evolve.”

This illustration sketches out the main features of TOI 451, a triple-planet system located 400 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center


The Pisces-Eridanus, named for the constellations with the highest number of stars, stretches across 14 constellations total — measuring about 1,300 light-years long. 

Astronomers have determined it’s only 120 million years old — eight times younger than previous estimates. Its young age makes it particularly exciting for studying planet and star formation and evolution. 

The system’s star, TOI 451, also known as CD-38 1467, is located in the constellation Eridanus, about 400 light-years away. It has 95% of our sun’s mass, but it is 12% smaller, slightly colder and emits 35% less energy. 

TOI 451 rotates every 5.1 days — five times faster than the sun. 

“The sun of the newly discovered planets is like a teenager compared to our own sun. That means its planets are still changing and evolving,” said Newton.

The Pisces-Eridanus stream spans 1,300 light-years, sprawling across 14 constellations and one-third of the sky. Yellow dots show the locations of known or suspected members, with TOI 451 circled. TESS observations show that the stream is about 120 million years old, comparable to the famous Pleiades cluster in Taurus (upper left).

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center


All three planets are very hot and inhospitable to life as we know it, orbiting their star three times closer than Mercury ever gets to our sun. Temperature estimates range from about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit for the innermost planet to about 840 F for the outermost one. 

The closest planet orbits the star roughly every 2 days, while the farthest one circles about every 16 days. They range in size between that of Earth and Neptune.

While there are over 4,000 known planets outside of our solar system, most of them are older and much farther away from Earth than the newly-discovered system. According to the research team, only seven other young systems with multiple transiting planets have ever been found. 

The trio gives astronomers the rare opportunity to study a group of growing planets. Researchers plan to continue studying the planets using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and its planned successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, to examine how systems like our own solar system evolve. 

“By studying these planets in the context of others, we can piece together the picture of how planets form and develop,” Newton said.

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