Thu, May 14, 2009
Amazing Mission Is Incredibly Complex
Using the shuttle's robotic arm
STS-125 Mission Specialist Megan McArthur grappled the Hubble Space
Telescope at 12:14 p.m. CDT Wednesday. McArthur then maneuvered the
telescope onto a Flight Support System maintenance platform in
Atlantis’ payload bay. The stage is set for five spacewalks
in as many days to repair and update instruments, extending
Hubble's lifespan through 2014.
Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel conducted a final
review of plans for the first spacewalk with the help of fellow
spacewalkers Mike Good and Mike Massimino, and the rest of the
crew. They also checked out all of the tools necessary for the
mission’s spacewalks.
Mission managers declared Atlantis’ thermal protection
tiles safe for reentry, but continue to examine the imagery from
Tuesday’s inspection of the reinforced carbon carbon on the
shuttle’s nose cap and wing leading edges.
As we write this, STS-125 astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew
Feustel are set to make the first of five Hubble servicing
spacewalks Thursday. Scheduled to begin work at 8:16 a.m. EDT, the
astronauts were to remove Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2
and replace it with the new Wide Field Camera 3. They were also to
replace a failed science data processing computer that delayed the
launch from last October and install a mechanism for a spacecraft
to capture Hubble for de-orbit at the end of its life.
Meanwhile, the crew was informed that a focused inspection will
not be required for any area of the shuttle. The official decision
will be made during Thursday's Mission Management Team meeting.
The crew also was notified that the imagery from scans of the
underbelly and scans of the crew cabin did not sufficiently
overlap, leaving a row of 16 heat shield tiles in an area of the
port side of the shuttle's nose where there isn't sufficient
imagery. The crew will be asked to use the arm's end effector
camera to go over that area. The flight director has asked the
flight activities officer to potentially insert the brief
inspection into the crew's timeline on flight day 5. The survey
would take 45 minutes, at most.
There was no further communication with the crew about a
possible conjunction due to debris from the Chinese Fengyun-1C
weather satellite. The 10 cm object was to make its closest
approach to Atlantis at 7:28 p.m. EDT. It passed without
incident.
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