NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Busy Weekend Ahead

Image above: An overhead crane lifts off the cover of the shipping container containing Hubble's Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier and the Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
› View Hi-res Image

July 18, 2008
Work on space shuttle Atlantis' thermal protection system will continue over the weekend in NASA Kennedy Space Center's Orbiter Processing Facility.

Three of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's science instruments were delivered to Kennedy's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility this week and are now undergoing a highly sensitive cleaning process to prepare the equipment for flight. The fourth and final component will be delivered at the end of July.

Repair of Launch Pad 39A's flame trench is right on schedule. All materials needed for the refurbishment have arrived and fireproofing will begin Monday with the application of Fondu Fyre, a heat resistant concrete developed during the Apollo space program.

At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, STS-125 Mission Specialists Mike Massimino and Michael Good wrapped up the week by practicing spacewalk techniques in Johnson's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. On the second spacewalk of the Hubble servicing mission they will replace three rate sensor units and the bay 3 batteries.

The STS-125 flight is the final shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA astronauts will install new instruments, gyros, batteries and other components crucial to the telescope’s continued success through the year 2013.

› STS-125 Mission and Crew
› Hubble Telescope Main Site
› Shuttle Launch Manifest