NASA and European Space Agency’s Hubble Space Telescope has unexpectedly suffered a glitch, forcing the instruments onboard to go into a protective safe mode, while science observations have been stalled.

The telescope has experienced “synchronisation issues with internal spacecraft communications”, Hubble team members wrote on Twitter. “Science observations have been temporarily suspended while the team investigates the issue. The instruments remain in good health,” they added.

Hubble recently went offline for more than a month after suffering a glitch with its main payload computer. The team managed to get Hubble up and running again in July after switching to backup hardware.

Hubble, launched in 1990, has contributed to some of the most significant discoveries of our cosmos, including the accelerating expansion of the universe, the evolution of galaxies over time, and the first atmospheric studies of planets beyond our solar system.

Its mission was to spend at least 15 years probing the farthest and faintest reaches of the cosmos, and it continues to far exceed this goal.

NASA‘s much-awaitedA $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is touted as the successor to the iconic Hubble Space Telescope.

The telescope, scheduled to be launched on December 18, is a technological marvel. Webb will be the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built and launched into space. it aims to fundamentally alter understanding of the universe.