NASA officials have said they will attempt to revive the space telescope Hubble, idle since September 27 due to an equipment failure.
Hubble was put out of service last month because of a technical problem with Side-A of its Science Data Formatter - the unit that allowed the powerful telescope to collect data, format it and relay it back to Earth, yielding spectacular images of space.
This technical failure prompted NASA to postpone a long-awaited space shuttle mission to service and upgrade the orbital observatory until next February at the earliest.
That flight is to be the fifth and final servicing call by space shuttle astronauts to the observatory and had been scheduled for lift-off today.
By delaying the shuttle mission, NASA hopes to fly spare parts to restore backup capability to the telescope. The shuttle program is scheduled to end in 2010.
Hubble managers said they should know by the first or second week of November if the spare unit is ready to be flown.
Orbiting 575km (360 miles) above Earth, Hubble was launched in 1990 and has enabled scientists to better measure the age and origins of the universe, observe distant supernovas, and identify and study bodies inside and outside the solar system.
Hubble is due to function for at least two more years until the James Webb Space Telescope is launched in 2013.
