Hubble Space Telescope Is In Safe Mode After Gyro Failure

Keith's note: According to these tweets from Dr. Rachel Osten, Deputy Mission Head for the Hubble Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Hubble Space Telescope is in Safe Mode after a gyroscope failure. No word from NASA PAO yet.

It's true. Very stressful weekend. Right now HST is in safe mode while we figure out what to do. Another gyro failed. First step is try to bring back the last gyro, which had been off, and is being problematic. — Dr. Rachel Osten (@rachelosten) October 8, 2018

Not really scary, we knew it was coming. The gyro lasted about six months longer than we thought it would (almost pulled the plug on it back in the spring). We'll work through the issues and be back. — Dr. Rachel Osten (@rachelosten) October 8, 2018

It's not a difficult decision, @astrogrant: the plan has always been to drop to 1-gyro mode when two remain. There isn't much difference between 2- and 1, and it buys lots of extra observing time. Which the Astro community wants desperately. — Dr. Rachel Osten (@rachelosten) October 8, 2018

And it's really the brilliant people @NASAGoddard who are now staffing the flight ops 24/7, and working the anomalous gyro behavior. — Dr. Rachel Osten (@rachelosten) October 8, 2018

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