THE Hubble Space Telescope is being operated with only two of its gyroscopes instead of the usual three, in the hope that this will extend its useful life.
Hubble was designed to point and stabilise itself using three mechanical gyroscopes, and was equipped with a further three to act as spares. Two of the six installed in 1999 have already broken down. All had been scheduled for replacement in a shuttle mission planned before the Columbia crash ruled this out.
Now a year of testing has convinced NASA engineers they can point Hubble as accurately with two gyros as with…
