The fifth and final partnership between a space shuttle crew and the Hubble Space Telescope is in its final hours. With completion of today’s spacewalk, Hubble is now ready to continue its exploration of the cosmos with a full complement of science instruments.
Very early on Sunday morning, word came from functional test analysis that yesterday’s repair activities on the Advanced Camera for Surveys had achieved the prime objective of the effort—restoration of the instrument’s Wide Field Channel (WFC).
The addition of a new science instrument and an unprecedented on-orbit repair of a severely under-performing camera on Hubble highlighted Saturday activities aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis.
With the completion of the second STS-125 spacewalk today, the three science priorities for Hubble on the final shuttle servicing mission have already been met: the installation of a new science instrument, a new command and data handling unit and six new gyros.
With the first of the five planned spacewalks completed, two of the three top mission priorities have already been met with the installation of a new science instrument and a new command and data handling unit.
The major event on Wednesday in the Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC) was Space Shuttle Atlantis’ rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope. Despite not being able to follow the nominal plan, a back-up approach which accomplished the same objective was used.
Today's activities include reconfiguring the telescope’s science instruments and the NSSC-1 science computer into stand-by mode, changing the shuttle’s pointing system from two-gyro mode to three-gyro mode. The aperture door on the telescope was closed at 6:22 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.