Late last week, NASA's Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft experienced some sort of problem that caused it to enter what's called emergency mode. This should only occur when the spacecraft experiences a serious problem, as it limits its activity and burns through the probe's limited fuel supply at an accelerated pace. This incident marked the first time since Kepler was launched in 2009 that it entered emergency mode.

Today, NASA announced that it had re-established normal communication with Kepler, allowing the spacecraft to exit emergency mode. The telescope's communication hardware is once again pointed directly at Earth. This has allowed controllers to put Kepler in an operational mode where it consumes far less fuel, which will extend its usable life.

But first, the controllers must figure out why Kepler entered emergency mode in the first place. Full communications will allow them to download telemetry and operational data, which will hopefully allow them to identify the underlying problem. Until they do, however, planned observations of the Milky Way's galactic core have been put on hold. The window for observing the core from Kepler's current location closes on July first. Its previous observation work ended in late March, and all data from that work has already been transferred to Earth.

In a statement announcing the recovery, NASA's Charlie Sobeck said: