NASA attempts to fix Hubble Space Telescope run into trouble

Cape Canaveral: NASA's attempts to revive the troubled Hubble Space Telescope have not been successful and engineers are trying to determine their next step. After remaining out of action over the last three weeks the legendary 18-year-old orbiting observatory was expected to be back in business by Friday.

NASA officials said a pair of problems, which cropped up Thursday, has put all recovery operations on hold.

The problems involved one of Hubble's cameras and the command and data-handling system for science instruments, said NASA spokeswoman Susan Hendrix. The system failed late last month preventing the telescope from capturing and beaming down data.

The recovery efforts involve reverting to a backup channel for the command and data-handling system that had been dormant since the telescope was launched in 1990. Hendrix said it was too soon to know the severity of the latest trouble.

"If it's a commanding error and they figure it out, then they can bring it back up," Hendrix said. "But if it's more serious, they're going to need a little more time to troubleshoot."

The breakdown forced NASA to delay its final Hubble repair mission by shuttle astronauts scheduled for October. It will now take place only in February, possibly later.