STS 125 Launch - Hubble Servicing Mission

[Raesene]

now on NASA TV...

Link

This mission should keep the telescope in business until 2014.

the mission website

[Raesene]

Atlantis is in orbit and "playing catchup" with Hubble.

[FSTargetDrone]

Atlantis' manipulator arm is currently in the process of taking hold of the telescope. The arm is just about to grapple Hubble within a few seconds...

UPDATE:

Atlantis has taken hold of Hubble.

[Drooling Iguana]

This mission should keep the telescope in business until 2014.

Is that the limit of how long they expect it to last, or is there a chance that this could be another situation like those Mars rovers that were only intended to run for three months?

[Skylon]

This mission should keep the telescope in business until 2014.

Is that the limit of how long they expect it to last, or is there a chance that this could be another situation like those Mars rovers that were only intended to run for three months?

That's the minimum. I've seen some statements stating that they hope it can hold out for 5 - 10 years.

This sounds possible considering it has been seven years since the last servicing mission.

[Jeremy]

Could they catch Spitzer if need be?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Could they catch Spitzer if need be?

No. It's in solar orbit, trailing Earth. The only way a Space Shuttle could catch up to it is by shooting live nuclear bombs out the back.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Uh oh.

An inspection of the space shuttle Atlantis has uncovered some "minor" damage to the vehicle's right side, Nasa officials say.
Atlantis appears to be in good overall shape, but Nasa engineers in Houston are still studying the 53cm (21in) line of chips on the shuttle's right side.
More analysis is required to evaluate the case for another inspection.
Atlantis was launched on Monday to begin a risky repair mission intended to save the stricken space observatory.
Hubble has been hit by failures to its science instruments and to gyroscopes.
These gyros are used to point the observatory at targets in the sky. If successful, the mission could extend Hubble's lifetime beyond 2014.
During their first full day in orbit, Atlantis's crew used a laser-tipped boom to look for any damage to the orbiter in a 10-hour inspection.
The chips could have been caused by debris seen during the launch
The line of chips uncovered by the astronauts are in thick tiles that make up the protective heat shield on Atlantis' starboard side.

The damage is located where the right wing joins the shuttle's fuselage. Nasa said the chips could be related to a "debris event" detected by the wing's leading edge sensors 104-106 seconds into the lift-off.

Officials said the damage did not appear to be serious: "To my untrained eye... I would think [the chips] were minor," lead flight director Tony Ceccaci told reporters at a news conference in Houston.

But more analysis by engineers would determine whether a "focused inspection" was needed in that specific area. If so, astronauts would use sensors to determine the exact depth of the damage to the heat shield tiles.

Nasa has placed the space shuttle Endeavour on stand-by to rescue the crew of Atlantis if they are endangered.

If something goes wrong on this mission, Atlantis's astronauts will not be able to shelter on the International Space Station (ISS).

The station orbits at around 350km (220 miles) above Earth, while Hubble occupies an orbit about 560km (350 miles) up.

Impacts from micrometeoroids and space debris present one of the most pernicious threats to the astronauts.

There is more space junk - from old satellites and rocket stages - at Hubble's altitude than at the ISS's.

But a successful mission would make Hubble up to 90 times more powerful than it was in its original guise.

Atlantis roared up into the sky at 1901 BST (1401 EDT) on Monday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Nasa discovered a surprising amount of damage from Monday's launch at the pad used by Atlantis.

Managers wanted to make sure none of the material blasted off during launch hit Atlantis.

Atlantis is due to rendezvous with Hubble just after 1700 BST (1200 EDT) on Wednesday.

As the shuttle approaches Hubble, astronaut Megan McArthur will use the shuttle's robotic arm to grab the 13.2m- (43ft-) long telescope.

She will then mount the observatory on a work platform in the shuttle's cargo bay to allow the spacewalkers easy access to Hubble.


The next day, astronauts will begin the first of five gruelling spacewalks planned for the 11-day mission.

Crew members will install new instruments and thermal blankets, repair two existing instruments, replace gyroscopes, batteries and a unit that stores and transmits science data to Earth.

Astronauts will remove the existing Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 instrument to make way for the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

This camera, able to take amazingly sharp images over a broad range of colours, will enable astronomers to carry out new studies of dark energy and dark matter, searching for remote galaxies previously beyond Hubble's vision.

Spacewalkers will also swap the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (Costar) device for the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS).



COS is designed for ultraviolet spectroscopy and will probe the origins of large scale structure in the Universe as well as the formation and evolution of galaxies.

Nasa plans to make repairs to the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), which suffered a power failure in 2004, and to the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which was hit by an electrical short in 2007.

After the work to Hubble is complete, Atlantis will boost the telescope to a higher altitude, ensuring that it survives the tug of Earth's gravity for the remainder of its operating lifetime.

Launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope is now regarded as one of the most important instruments in the history of astronomy. It has made a remarkable contribution to our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe.

Following the Columbia disaster in 2003, which claimed the lives of seven astronauts, another mission to service Hubble was considered too hazardous.

The reason was astronauts would not be able to use the space station as a safe haven if the shuttle sustained damage on launch.

Nasa has now accepted the risk of the mission, but will have the shuttle Endeavour ready to launch immediately to bring the crew home if the servicing mission is put at risk.

Might be nothing, but still kinda worrying. Though I suppose with the Endeavour ready to launch a rescue the worst-case scenario is just losing the shuttle itself.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Might be nothing, but still kinda worrying. Though I suppose with the Endeavour ready to launch a rescue the worst-case scenario is just losing the shuttle itself.

NASA believes the damage to be superficial, and hasn't directed the crew of Atlantis to take a closer look, preferring to schedule in some examination time to go over a portion of the heat shield that was accidentally omitted during the first couple examinations. Further image analysis back on Earth may, or may not, prove them wrong.

As for the rescue mission, I would have to wonder what their contingency plan would be if Endeavour got smacked by a bit of debris from the external fuel tank on the way into orbit to save Atlantis.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Might be nothing, but still kinda worrying. Though I suppose with the Endeavour ready to launch a rescue the worst-case scenario is just losing the shuttle itself.

NASA believes the damage to be superficial, and hasn't directed the crew of Atlantis to take a closer look, preferring to schedule in some examination time to go over a portion of the heat shield that was accidentally omitted during the first couple examinations. Further image analysis back on Earth may, or may not, prove them wrong.

As for the rescue mission, I would have to wonder what their contingency plan would be if Endeavour got smacked by a bit of debris from the external fuel tank on the way into orbit to save Atlantis.

As I understand it, Endeavour is carrying enough fuel in her retrorockets so that she could actually do a successful insertion into the orbit of the ISS, and that's why a rescue mission is needed at all, since Atlantis couldn't carry that much, and also the crew and tools and equipment required for the job.

[Skylon]

Might be nothing, but still kinda worrying. Though I suppose with the Endeavour ready to launch a rescue the worst-case scenario is just losing the shuttle itself.

NASA believes the damage to be superficial, and hasn't directed the crew of Atlantis to take a closer look, preferring to schedule in some examination time to go over a portion of the heat shield that was accidentally omitted during the first couple examinations. Further image analysis back on Earth may, or may not, prove them wrong.

As for the rescue mission, I would have to wonder what their contingency plan would be if Endeavour got smacked by a bit of debris from the external fuel tank on the way into orbit to save Atlantis.

As I understand it, Endeavour is carrying enough fuel in her retrorockets so that she could actually do a successful insertion into the orbit of the ISS, and that's why a rescue mission is needed at all, since Atlantis couldn't carry that much, and also the crew and tools and equipment required for the job.

I'm not sure that's possible for the shuttle. HST is a ways up from ISS.

Even if you were to complete an ISS rendezvous, you'd have 14 people on ISS. I doubt Discovery could be readied in time, before consumables aboard ISS ran out. And The Russians could not pump out Soyuz's fast enough to get all 11 shuttle astronauts down. Even the scenarios developed for a shuttle crew stranded at ISS require an emergency Progress supply rocket launch by the Russians when all is said and done. If that fails ISS is to be abandoned.

NASA seems to have a better grasp of tile damage these days. A flight of Endeavour in 2007 proved that (when there was literally a gouge in a TPS tile). Ground examinations seem to think all should be okay. Also...you can just compare it to some past landings (the white marks ain't bird shit): http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index. ... 4341;image

But the rescue missions seem to be cases of praying lighting does not strike twice.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

We'd have to do a Progress supply launch and probably beg the Chinese to help and god knows what else, yeah. Though Endeavour would be fairly packed with supplies, I'm sure. It might not work, might not work at all, but at least we'd save some of them. I just want to know what the justification is for having four people on Endeavour during a rescue mission when the shuttle can and has operated with a crew of only two before. Can't the EVA specialists from the Atlantis handle things principally on their own?

[Skylon]

We'd have to do a Progress supply launch and probably beg the Chinese to help and god knows what else, yeah. Though Endeavour would be fairly packed with supplies, I'm sure. It might not work, might not work at all, but at least we'd save some of them. I just want to know what the justification is for having four people on Endeavour during a rescue mission when the shuttle can and has operated with a crew of only two before. Can't the EVA specialists from the Atlantis handle things principally on their own?

The Chinese? Who have launched exactly three manned space flights in six years?

As for the crew of four, while two is technically the minimum, four are trained to be carrying out tasks during rendezvous and docking with ISS...I imagine it is the same for a mission that is requiring the shuttle to hold station with a damaged shuttle and grapple it with the RMS.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

We'd have to do a Progress supply launch and probably beg the Chinese to help and god knows what else, yeah. Though Endeavour would be fairly packed with supplies, I'm sure. It might not work, might not work at all, but at least we'd save some of them. I just want to know what the justification is for having four people on Endeavour during a rescue mission when the shuttle can and has operated with a crew of only two before. Can't the EVA specialists from the Atlantis handle things principally on their own?

The Chinese? Who have launched exactly three manned space flights in six years?

As for the crew of four, while two is technically the minimum, four are trained to be carrying out tasks during rendezvous and docking with ISS...I imagine it is the same for a mission that is requiring the shuttle to hold station with a damaged shuttle and grapple it with the RMS.

Well, anyone who has a capsule available, more or less. I suppose that makes sense, though it does seem kind of sad that the shuttles can't even engage in station-keeping as some of our older capsules did.

[FSTargetDrone]

There is a live feed of the servicing right now. I saw a bunch of highlights from yesterday's work last night and it's very interesting stuff. It almost looks like they are working underwater when it's dark and with the limited field of view of the helmet-mounted cameras.

Right click on the image for the full screen option.

EDIT:

You can hear the astronauts (2 are outside) talking to each other and also one of them standing on a platform on the end of the shuttle arm as he directs another astronaut (Megan McArthur) in the shuttle to move the arm, to help maneuver him as he works on the telescope.

The helmet cam views are great. You can see what the astronauts see as they repair things.

[Skylon]

Well, anyone who has a capsule available, more or less. I suppose that makes sense, though it does seem kind of sad that the shuttles can't even engage in station-keeping as some of our older capsules did.

What do you mean? Station keeping was not automatic on Gemini or Apollo. Unless I'm screwing up the meaning of station-keeping (flying formation with another spacecraft).

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Well, anyone who has a capsule available, more or less. I suppose that makes sense, though it does seem kind of sad that the shuttles can't even engage in station-keeping as some of our older capsules did.

What do you mean? Station keeping was not automatic on Gemini or Apollo. Unless I'm screwing up the meaning of station-keeping (flying formation with another spacecraft).

I mean that flying in formation does not normally require a crew of 4 to accomplish on anything more sophisticated than a dirigible, so I doubt that's the cause for two extra personnel.

[Broomstick]

Might be nothing, but still kinda worrying. Though I suppose with the Endeavour ready to launch a rescue the worst-case scenario is just losing the shuttle itself.

Well, no, the worst would be losing both shuttles.... but that is extremely unlikely.

Space travel isn't safe, folks. I fully support taking precautions and, in the event of something going wrong, attempting rescue but the brutal fact is that there is a RISK involved in flying these missions.

[FSTargetDrone]

While all of this talk about rescue missions is interesting, let's not forget about the repair mission that is going on right now.

Watch these men and women working on the Hubble. It's really fascinating stuff. This is something we will not probably be able to watch again live, for a very long time, given that this is the last repair mission to Hubble and who knows if any other future telescopes will have such service missions.

Yesterday's mission showed one of the astronauts practically inside the telescope as he worked on it.

[Skylon]

While all of this talk about rescue missions is interesting, let's not forget about the repair mission that is going on right now.

Watch these men and women working on the Hubble. It's really fascinating stuff. This is something we will not probably be able to watch again live, for a very long time, given that this is the last repair mission to Hubble and who knows if any other future telescopes will have such service missions.

Yesterday's mission showed one of the astronauts practically inside the telescope as he worked on it.

Indeed. It's probably the last time for awhile we'll see such a sight. Shuttle does have its flaws, but it has certain unique capabilities that we won't see replaced by any current, spacecraft, or ones down the pipeline in the near future. This is one of them.

[Raesene]

The shuttle is expected to land in about 5 minutes, the event is shown if you follow the link in the OP.

[Skylon]

Looks like it was a good landing.

After years of sweating, and even being canceled once, its good to see this mission was pulled off without a major hitch. If there was one mission shuttle should have still flown after the loss of Columbia, this was it.

Only eight flights remain for the shuttle fleet now.