NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Technician Andrew Scharmann prepares the replacement SI C&DH for vibration testing at a Goddard Space Flight Center vibration laboratory.   Image Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn      > View larger image The first week of March was a busy and productive one for the Hubble Program. Hubble engineers from the Goddard Space Flight Center have been participating in the next-to-last spacewalking training activity at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at Johnson Space Center in Houston. During this underwater training, astronauts and engineers fine-tune and practice procedures for the upcoming servicing mission scheduled to launch on May 12.

At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., environmental testing of the replacement Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit (SI C&DH) continues to go well as the unit enters into its final vibration and thermal vacuum tests. The replacement SI C&DH will be shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in early April where it will be loaded on board Atlantis along with the entire servicing mission payload. Engineers from Goddard also participated in a final review of the flight procedure changes that were made as a result of adding the SI C&DH to the manifest.

Spacewalking astronaut Michael Good uses an underwater version of the Pistol Grip Tool during this week's NBL activity to practice opening Hubble's aft shroud doors.   Image Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn      > View larger image