The Hubble Space Telescope's imaging spectrograph stopped operating on 3 August, possibly because of a second power-converter failure. The instrument, used to find black holes and dim stars and accounting for 30% of Hubble's observations, had exceeded its design life and was not scheduled for upgrade or replacement. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency says its much-delayed $135 million Lunar-A mission to orbit the Moon and send two instrumented penetrator probes to hit the surface is in jeopardy because of financial and technical problems. The larger Selene mission to orbit the Moon and deploy two mini-satellites is also under threat. India's long-term plan for a $2.2 billion manned landing on the Moon in 2015 is still being considered but is unlikely, admits the Indian Space Research Organisation.
Source: Flight International
