Science operations have resumed.
Servicing Mission 4 has been delayed even further.
Arp 147. Pretty!
but...
SM-4 is delayed beyond the current delay to feb '09
"NASA managers have announced that they will not meet a February 2009 launch date for the fifth and final shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The decision comes after engineers completed assessments of the work needed to get a second data handling unit for the telescope ready to fly. The unit will replace one that failed on Hubble in late September, causing the agency to postpone the servicing mission, which had been targeted for Oct. 14....
...testing is anticipated to run from mid-December to early March 2009. Final testing will be conducted on the unit, and delivery to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is expected in early April."
WFPC2 is on.
Advanced Camera Solar Blind Channel is being calibrated.
No word on NICMOS.
Please tell me NIC got baked and the ice is gone and it will be available.
Prognosis: with no servicing before April at the earliest, there will have to be an interim call for proposals utilizing the existing instruments, and soon.
Cycle 18 will now probably be delayed a full year, what with engineering tests and calibrations of the new instruments, and then all of cycle 17 to work through.
Bad news for funding, and data.
The NICMOS cooler will be turned on again around Nov. 10 - I twittered that and many other details during the telecon.