(CNN) -- The world-famous Hubble Space Telescope is owned by the U.S. government and operated cooperatively by NASA and an institute under contract to NASA. Now that the government has shut down, the institute can still use existing resources to continue Hubble operations for as long as possible. Its staff has tried to ensure that -- to the extent possible -- the shutdown will not affect telescope operations. But events can overtake plans. If Hubble encounters a problem or a glitch, as happens occasionally, science operations will be suspended and the spacecraft will be locked into safe mode until government employees can issue spacecraft commands to restore operations.
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Government shutdown affects NASA, where employees are off the job
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Meg Urry: A two-week shutdown could waste $3 million to $8 million of taxpayer money
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She says loss to science is greater as critical astronomical work could be affected
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Urry: NASA scientists can't do their work and must make up for it when shutdown ends
To check on the number of satellites that might be affected by the shutdown, this author tried to access a @placeholder website, only to see the following message: "Due to the lapse in federal government funding, this website is not available.
The main @placeholder website defaults to the same error message.