NASA's Hubble Telescope is back in action — but its TESS exoplanet hunter may now be in trouble

A split screen diagonally. On the top is the Hubble Space Telescope, wrapped in silvery material. On the bottom is TESS, a golden object with blue solar panel wings.

On Monday (April 29), NASA restored the Hubble Space Telescope to full operation, returning it to its scientific activities after the spacecraft spent a week in safe mode. The celebratory mood was dampened somewhat, however, because NASA's exoplanet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), remains in limbo.

Ironically, TESS also stopped collecting science data on April 23, the same day the Hubble Telescope was placed into safe mode. The latter's operations were halted due to a glitch with one of its three gyroscopes, which the space telescope uses to determine how it is orientated, while the reason for the former's lapse in service is still unclear.