Given that NASA still likes to use very old tech (as it proven technology so something like that), this 'upgrade' could well be to the level of windows 95 !! ;)

(i could lend'em a P2-233 & W95 install CD)

Wow, there sure is a dearth of technical details about the Hubbles computers in this article. That is very disappointing. 

Maybe I should consult Wikipedia, ya think?

Once again Hon John d' astronaute' & Drashek are off by light minute. heres last NASA report from Friday:

On Wednesday, October 14, engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center reconfigured six components of the Hubble Data Management System and five components in the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SIC &DH) system to use their redundant (or B) sides. This was done to work around a failure that occurred on September 27 in the Side A Science Data Formatter in the SIC&DH and resulted in the cessation of all science observations except for astrometry with the Fine Guidance Sensors. 

The reconfiguration proceeded nominally and Hubble resumed the science timeline at Noon ET on Thursday, October 16. The first activities out of that on-board science timeline were the commanding of the science instruments from their safe to operate modes. This occurred nominally for Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi Object Spectrometer. However, an anomaly occurred during the last steps of the commanding to the Advanced Camera for Surveys. At 1:40 pm, when the low voltage power supply to the ACS Solar Blind Channel was commanded on, software running in a microprocessor in ACS detected an incorrect voltage level in the Solar Blind Channel and suspended ACS. Then at 5:14 pm, the Hubble spacecraft computer sensed the loss of a "keep alive" signal from the NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer in the SIC&DH and correctly responded by safing the NSSC-I and the science instruments. It is not yet known if these two events were related.

The investigation into both anomalies is underway. All data has been collected and is being analyzed. The science instruments will remain in safe mode until the NSSC-I issue is resolved. All other subsystems on the spacecraft are performing nominally and astrometry observations continue

They should change the OS to Vista!

in response to writer that thinks they don't send junk/crappy equip. into space..when astronaut Frank Borman(sic ?) was asked if he was ever scarred or afraid while in orbit...he said YES..when he looked at the instrument panel and realized all the components:safety and standard electronics parts went to the LOWEST BIDDER....

...jerry seinfeld explaining to NASA's chief the value of the Mojave experiment...

"and the banjo and wah wah functions", "boffins"

How about you wait until after you write your article before you toke up. Very sorry this material is so boring to you that you feel the need to "enhance" the content, but for persons who actually are interested in the Hubble, your lame attempts at achieving a distinguishing style come across as naive.

Let us hope that the backup computer does not need any updates from Redmond, That could block 4 years of bandwidth!

On Newsfeed offered on Ultimate Sidebar Nick Farrell, writer of article, got linked all way to msn newsfeed on sidebar feed. Only it ain't true, however item is much faster on internet than thru incisive, Has moved to number 12 of 100, so in 5 days should timeout & by then, Who Knows. I'm Not going to say who posted this, like Drashek, who sometimes posts multiple times on Dead Subject.

However I will state computer in question has all capabilities of Sony WebTV Box. Maybe with enough time & leakage, it'll spring to life from quereying.
DAISie dAsIe GiVe Me....Try running Server 2008 & wifi from home with it.This is SO PreDirecTV!!
Hon John'd Astronaute'.

The "banjo and wah wah" ... are you sure this isn't some sort of folk music group? 
Also, is "spokesboffin" a new word? I hadn't heard this expression before.

Instead of the SP2 upgrade, they should send Jobs up to install a Macbook. Then he could use Target Mode to upgrade on any future... d'oh! I forgot... Macbook doesn't have Firewire! I think they're calling it, "FriedWire" or, "FiredWire," now. Well, if FW gets orphaned, Windows 7 should be ready for the next update in 18 years (Behind back, fingers crossed!).

So the hubble is getting an upgrade,
who's going to click "Allow" to all the Vista prompts?. hehe.

What then heck is a spokesboffin??

Are they imbedded aliens?

Great..so we're upgrading hubble with sp2? Now it's ethernet drivers will crsh, windows messenger popups will be seen in every pic, and hubble will have to reboot every time it tries using it's flashplayer. I guess it's better than a vista upgrade ;)

The computer that was changed on service mission 3A is the main computer, not the science&data computer.

"NASA will send send up another spare computer with the space shuttle’s Hubble upgrade mission (SP2)."
So Hubble is getting service pack 2? :P

and as far as the upgrades are concerned, i think they should wait until Nehalem is out. :P

According to wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope

Servicing Mission 3A Discovery (STS-103) took place in December 1999... Although the new computer is hardly a powerhouse (a 25 MHz radiation hardened Intel 486 with two megabytes of RAM), it is still 20 times faster, with six times more memory, than the DF-224 it replaced.

To those who doubted it would work...HAH!

They dont send any old crap up into space you know.

Let Me Lock Your Air Vent, Dave. Oh, My Gosh, I Thought 18 Year Old Mainboard Battery issues would of brought 'Er Down.

Yea for Hubble & Yea for Me. Avoid Heavy UltraV Rays.
Drashek Tocking When Ticker wasn't.

I tought wah wah's were detectable only by nose :)