TRAINING BEGINS FOR CREW OF NEXT HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE SERVICING MISSION



July 30, 1998
Renee Juhans
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1712)

Eileen M. Hawley/Doug Peterson
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281/483-5111)


<h4>Release: H98-138</h4> <h3>Training Begins For Crew of Next Hubble 
Space Telescope Servicing Mission</h3> 

A team of veteran astronauts will begin training to install new 
instruments and upgrade systems to enhance the scientific 
capabilities of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.



Crew members Steven L. Smith; C. Michael Foale, Ph.D.; European Space 
Agency astronaut Claude Nicollier; and John M. Grunsfeld, Ph.D., will 
conduct a record six space walks during the STS-104 mission, 
scheduled for launch in May 2000. Smith will be the payload 
commander, coordinating the astronauts' space-walking activities.



"The ambitious nature of this mission, with its six space walks, made 
it important for the payload crew to begin its training as early as 
possible," said David C. Leestma, director of Flight Crew Operations 
at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX.



The crew will rendezvous with and capture the orbiting Hubble Space 
Telescope, and secure it in Columbia's payload bay using the 
Shuttle's robot arm. Then, working in teams of two, the veteran 
astronauts will venture into the payload bay performing a variety of 
tasks that will improve the productivity and reliability of the 
telescope.



To enhance Hubble's scientific capability, the astronauts will remove 
the Faint Object Camera and replace it with the Advanced Camera for 
Surveys. With its three electronic cameras and complement of filters, 
this camera is expected to improve the telescope's sensitivity in the 
ultraviolet range by a factor of ten.



Other primary tasks to be accomplished during the flight include the 
replacement of Fine Guidance Sensor #2, one of three such devices 
that help to accurately point the telescope; replacement of the 
existing solar arrays with rigid, high efficiency arrays; and 
replacement of a tape recorder with a solid state recorder.



Secondary tasks include the installation of an aft-shroud cooling 
system to upgrade the thermal protection of some of the telescope's 
systems; the installation of a new technology cryogenic cooler for 
the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer instrument, 
known as the NICMOS Cooling System; and the installation of six 
voltage/temperature improvement kits, which will improve Hubble's 
battery charge capability.



In addition, the astronauts will repair and replace much of the 
multi-layer exterior thermal insulation on the sun-facing side of the 
telescope. In February 1997, the STS-82 crew noticed peeling on 
several areas of the insulation and applied four patches to the most 
affected areas.



Both Smith and Nicollier have previous experience with Hubble. Smith 
performed three space walks during the second Hubble servicing 
mission in February 1997. Nicollier operated the Shuttle's robot arm 
during the first visit to the telescope during the STS-61 mission in 
1993. Foale has conducted space walks from both the Space Shuttle and 
Russia's Mir space station, accumulating more than 10 hours of 
space-walking experience. Grunsfeld has two previous space flights to 
his credit.



For more information on the astronauts or the Hubble Space Telescope, 
go to:



http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/ http://oposite.stsci.edu

	
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