The End of an Incredible Journey

The End of an Incredible Journey
Astronauts complete their servicing mission to Hubble and prepare for a return to Earth
By Dante A. Ciampaglia May 22 , 2009


For seven days, the cargo bay of the space shuttle Atlantis was a kind of interstellar repair shop.

Astronauts aboard the shuttle pulled the Hubble Space Telescope out of its orbit and brought it into the cargo bay for some much-needed repairs and upgrades.They added new cameras. They replaced gyroscopes. They repaired equipment that stopped working years ago.

It was the fifth and final Hubble repair mission. The installation of all this new and refurbished equipment gave Hubble a new lease on life. Scientists expect Hubble will remain operational for at least five more years, thanks to the astronauts. Without them, Hubble would have stopped working much sooner.

After five spacewalks and more than 36 hours outside the shuttle, astronauts finished servicing Hubble.On Tuesday, Atlantis astronaut Megan McArthur used the shuttle's robotic arm to lift Hubble out of the cargo bay. The robot arm let go of Hubble, and Hubble floated back into its place, 350 miles above Earth.

"There are folks who thought we couldn't do this," lead flight director Tony Ceccacci said. "They told us 'You're too aggressive.' I don't want to say 'We told you so,' but we told you so."

The astronauts worked on parts of Hubble that were never meant to be accessed in outer space. Thanks to special tools, they were able to work on delicate equipment in their big, bulky space suits, with little trouble.

There was one piece of Hubble that did pose a problem, though.During one of their spacewalks, astronauts needed to access Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph camera. To reach it, they had to remove a handrail. But a bolt attaching the rail to the telescope wouldn't come off.They used every tool in their kit to remove the bolt. Nothing worked. Finally, they used good old-fashioned brute force, and ripped the handrail off.

The stuck handrail was frustrating for the astronauts. But in the end it was a small problem on an otherwise "incredible journey," according to Atlantis commander Scott Altman."It's amazing to look back at how hard things looked a couple of times—more difficult than I ever expected," Altman said. "And then to overcome and wind up with everything done in the way that it was—we were very successful."

With their mission over, the Atlantis crew is preparing for their return home. They were scheduled to return to Earth Friday. But bad weather in Florida forced NASA to postpone their return trip until Saturday.

Meanwhile, scientists on Earth are anxious to put the upgraded Hubble to use.

The new equipment will allow researchers to look 13.2 billion light years into space. That's farther than ever before."I truly believe this is a very important moment in human history, and I think it's an important moment for science," Hubble project scientist David Leckrone said. "Just using what Hubble's already done as a starting point, it's unimaginable that we won't go dramatically further than that."

All of the new equipment and cameras should be ready for use by late summer. Hubble should start sending data and images sometime in September.

It is amazing to see astronauts working on the Hubble telescope. Do you think that the astronauts ever thought they would be in outer space fixing a gigantic telescope? What do you want to be when you grow up? Remember to describe in length your vision and dreams.