NASA restarts Hubble telescope

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. space officials reactivated the Hubble space telescope's instrument panel Thursday in an effort to get the telescope transmitting again.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the telescope, which has been plagued with problems since last month, could resume taking pictures as early as Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

An independent review team said last week's power supply failure appears to have been caused by a limit-checking algorithm that triggered before the data that it was checking were valid. The sudden halt of the spacecraft computer appears to have been triggered by a self-clearing short-circuit in the control plane, NASA said in a release.

Officials said there does not appear to be any permanent damage to the instruments on telescope, which has been orbiting Earth for 18 years.