STS-125 Up Close & Personal

We recently travelled to the U.S for the STS-125 Mission. We met some friends of ours there which always makes it even more interesting one of whom was Rick Mulhern. You can find Rick's blog here detailing his trip; behind the scenes at NASA, his personal collection and a privileged meeting with the 6th man to walk on the moon, Dr Edgar (Ed) Mitchell.

Rick Mulherns Blog

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Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 Mission Update 18

3:30 a.m. CDT Wednesday, May 20, 2009Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
05.20.09

STATUS REPORT : STS-125-18

STS-125 MCC Status Report #18

As the voyage of the space shuttle Atlantis boldly continued this morning, the crew woke up at 3:03 a.m. CDT to the theme from the television series “Star Trek,” which was composed by Alexander Courage. The song was played for the entire crew. At 9:26 a.m., the crew will talk with members of the media at different NASA centers about the mission, the Hubble Telescope and the crew’s thoughts on being a part of this fifth and final servicing mission. At 11:06 a.m., the crew will make a ship-to-ship call to their orbital neighbors, the crew of Expedition 19 on board the International Space Station. The crew will spend the balance of the day enjoying some off duty time as they prepare for Friday’s entry and landing. The crew is due to go to sleep at 6:01 p.m.

Farewell to The Hubble Space Telescope

4 a.m. CDT Tuesday, May 19, 2009 Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
05.19.09

STATUS REPORT : STS-125-16

STS-125 MCC Status Report #16

An STS-125 crew member aboard the NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis captured this still image of the Hubble Space Telescope as the two spacecraft continue their relative separation on May 19, after having been linked together for the better part of a week. During the week five spacewalks were performed to complete the final servicing mission for the orbital observatory.

The crew of Atlantis will bid farewell to the Hubble Space Telescope today. Atlantis’ crew woke up this morning at 3:31 a.m. CDT to “Lie in Our Graves” performed by the Dave Matthews Band. It was played for Mission Specialist Megan McArthur. McArthur will operate the shuttle’s robotic arm today as she reaches out and grapples onto the telescope. She will then lift Hubble out of Atlantis’ payload bay and move it over the edge of the shuttle. Ground teams will command Hubble’s aperture door to open, which is the large shutter that protects the telescope’s primary and secondary mirrors. Final release of Hubble is scheduled for 7:53 a.m. Atlantis will perform a final separation maneuver from the telescope at 8:29 a.m., which will take the shuttle out of the vicinity of Hubble. The berthing mechanism to which Hubble has been attached during the mission will then be stored back down into the payload bay. The crew also will use the robotic arm to unberth the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) and will use it to perform a scheduled inspection of Atlantis’ heat shield to make sure that it remains in good shape for entry. The crew’s sleep period will begin at 7:31 p.m. CDT, and the crew is due to wake up tomorrow at 3:31 a.m.

Catch up on the latest news from these astronaut fan sites;

Michael Foale

Helen Sharman

Piers Sellers

Nicholas Patrick

NASA Shuttle Mission Status Report 14.

5 a.m. CDT Monday, May 18, 2009Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
05.18.09
STATUS REPORT : STS-125-14

STS-125 MCC Status Report #14

As Atlantis’ crew begins their eighth day in space, astronauts Drew Feustel and John Grunsfeld are hours away from conducting the final spacewalk on the Hubble Space Telescope. The STS-125 crew awoke this morning to “Sound of Your Voice” performed by Barenaked Ladies. It was played for Commander Scott Altman. There are two major focuses for today’s spacewalk. The first objective for Feustel and Grunsfeld is the removal of the battery module from Bay 3 on the telescope and the installation of a fresh module. Each battery module weighs 460 pounds and contains three batteries. Each of the nickel hydrogen batteries weighs 125 pounds, and they provide power to the telescope when it passes into orbital night and the solar arrays are not exposed to the sun. All of the batteries on Hubble are original equipment, and they were only designed to operate for five years. The batteries in Bay 2 were replaced earlier in the mission. The second task is the removal and replacement of Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) 2. Hubble has three of these sensors, and FGS 2 has degraded over time. The three sensors are parked at 90 degree angles around the circumference of the telescope, and two are used to point and lock the telescope on its targets. The third can be used for astrometry, which is measuring the distances between different celestial objects. The refurbished FGS that will be installed today previously had been removed and returned on the third servicing mission in December 1999. It has since been enhanced and upgraded.

After these two tasks are accomplished, Feustel and Grunsfeld will turn their attention to the New Outer Blanket Layer (NOBL) on the outside of the telescope’s Bay 5. The NOBL on Bay 8 was due to be installed during yesterday’s spacewalk, but the crew was unable to accomplish it during the spacewalk. If time permits, Feustel and Grunsfeld may be asked to install a partial or full set of NOBLs on Bay 8.The team in Mission Control will make the decision in real time based on the progress of the spacewalk. The crew’s sleep period will begin at 7:31 p.m. CDT, and the crew is due to wake up tomorrow at 3:31 a.m. to begin procedures to release Hubble.

NASA Space Mission Collectables - STS-125

STS-125 Status Report 11

4 p.m. CDT Saturday, May 16, 2009Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
05.16.09

STATUS REPORT : STS-125-11

STS-125 MCC Status Report #11

Mission Specialists John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel completed the third spacewalk of Atlantis’ mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in 6 hours, 36 minutes, stepping smoothly through the difficult tasks of repairing a delicate camera and installing its most sensitive spectrograph ever. Grunsfeld and Feustel began the spacewalk at 8:35 a.m., removing the telescope’s 16-year-old “contact lens,” the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR), and safely tucked it into the shuttle’s payload bay. The two then installed the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), which will allow Hubble to peer farther into the universe than ever before in the near and far ultraviolet ranges. Then, Grunsfeld and Feustel used specially designed tools to carry out a job never intended to be done on a spacewalk, repairing the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The camera, known for some of the most famous imagery captured by Hubble, had stopped working in early 2007 when its backup power supply short circuited. The two removed 32 screws from an access panel to efficiently replace the camera’s four circuit boards and install a new power supply. In a test conducted from the Space Telescope Operations Control Center at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., engineers powered up the 851-pound COS to make sure its power and data connection were operating. While the astronauts sleep, the team will conduct additional functional tests on each component to determine if the astronauts will need to perform additional work. The COS will be calibrated over the next several weeks. The spacewalk was the 80th in space shuttle history. Grunsfeld now ranks fourth among all spacewalkers, with 51 hours, 28 minutes to his credit over seven excursions. Tomorrow, astronauts Michael Good and Mike Massimino will repair the Space Telescope Imaging and Spectrograph (STIS) and install the New Outer Blanket Layer (NOBL). The crew’s sleep period will begin at 8:31 p.m. and crew wake will be at 4:31 a.m. tomorrow.

STS-125 Mission Images

STS-125 Space Mission Collectables - Spaceboosters Online Store

STS-125 Mission Resource Materials

STS-125 Mission Resource Materials:
STS-125 Mission Summary
STS-125 Press Kit (4.5 Mb PDF)

STS-125 Mission Briefing Materials:
Tony Ceccacci, STS-125 Lead Space Shuttle Flight Director
Tomas Gonzales-Torres, STS-125 Lead Spacewalk Officer

STS-125 Crew Portrait
STS-125 Mission Patch

Space Shuttle Facts
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Atlantis moves towards pad

NASA's Shuttle Atlantis Starts Move to Launch Pad at 4 a.m. Tuesday

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Atlantis' rollout to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida has been rescheduled to begin at 4 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 31, as preparations for the STS-125 mission move forward. Atlantis is targeted to lift off May 12 to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. NASA Television's live coverage of the event will begin at 6:30 a.m. Video highlights will air on the NASA TV Video File. Journalists are invited to a photo opportunity of the shuttle's move to the pad and an interview opportunity with Atlantis Flow Director Angie Brewer at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. Dates and times of this event are subject to change. Updates are available by calling 321-867-2525. Reporters must arrive at Kennedy's news center by 6:30 a.m. Tuesday for transportation to the viewing area. Media accreditation for this event has closed. Badges can be picked up through Tuesday at the Kennedy Badging Office on State Road 405. The badging office opens at 6 a.m. The fully assembled space shuttle, consisting of the orbiter, external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters is mounted on a mobile launcher platform and will be delivered to the pad atop a crawler-transporter. The crawler will travel slower than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile journey. The process is expected to take approximately six hours. During Atlantis' 11-day mission, the crew of seven astronauts will make the final shuttle flight to Hubble. During five spacewalks, they will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and replace components. The result will be six working, complementary science instruments with capabilities beyond what is now available, and an extended operational lifespan for the telescope through at least 2014. Scott Altman will be the commander of Atlantis. Gregory C. Johnson will be the pilot. Mission specialists will be John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Megan McArthur, Andrew Feustel and Michael Good.

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Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Essentials

Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Essentials
15.09.08


Galaxies from the early universe. The birthplaces of planets. Dark matter. Dark energy. Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has brought these mysteries into focus, its powerful gaze scanning the universe for the details planet-bound telescopes find impossible to detect. Far above the Earth's surface, Hubble floats clear of the planet's light-distorting atmosphere, beaming back images that have transfixed humanity and changed the scientific world. Hubble's triumphs continue to accumulate thanks to a unique design that allows astronauts to repair and upgrade the telescope while it remains in orbit. Repairs keep the telescope functioning smoothly, while upgrades to the instruments bring a slew of new discoveries and science.

On October 10, 2008, astronauts will board the Space Shuttle Atlantis for Servicing Mission 4 (SM4), the final trip to the Hubble Telescope. Over the course of five spacewalks, they will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones, and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning at least into 2014. The effort-intensive, rigorously researched, exhaustively tested mission also involves diverse groups of people on the ground throughout the country.

Ready, Set, Go
The mission's planning is years in the making, and its success will be the product of months of intensive preparation and the work of hundreds of people at NASA and in academia and industry.

Astronauts train at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas, where they learn to deal with weightlessness in a giant water tank in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, and at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where they enter Goddard's huge intensively filtered "clean room" to work with the actual equipment they'll use and install aboard Hubble. Goddard prepares and tests instruments and hardware, while Kennedy Space Center in Florida prepares the space shuttle for the mission.

During SM4, teams at Johnson and Goddard work around the clock to make sure the mission succeeds. Johnson's Mission Control Center monitors the space shuttle and astronauts, and supervises spacewalks, procedures, crew activities and health, as well as shuttle systems and experiments.

Hubble personnel, including managers, scientists, and engineers from Goddard and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland, will be split between supporting the mission at Johnson and those working at Goddard.At Goddard, where the Hubble program is administered, the Space Telescope Operations Control Center controls the telescope itself, giving the commands that prepare the telescope for the astronauts' activities and test the newly installed equipment. Goddard's Control Center closes the door that protects the telescope's delicate optics, and maneuvers Hubble into position as the shuttle Atlantis approaches.

When the shuttle is about 200 feet (60 m) away from Hubble, Goddard will command the telescope to execute a roll that brings it into position for grappling. Astronauts use the shuttle's robotic arm to capture Hubble and dock it in the shuttle's cargo bay.

Next, the astronauts begin their series of five six-and-a-half-hour spacewalks. Two astronauts work outside on Hubble at a time. One mainly handles the free-floating tasks. The other is connected by a foot restraint to the robotic arm, which is operated by a third astronaut from within the shuttle. To keep themselves from accidentally floating away, the astronauts attach safety tethers to a cable that runs along the cargo bay. Hubble was built with handrails that also make it easy for astronauts to cling to the telescope.

Out With the OldMany of the telescope's components, especially the instruments, were designed to be easily removed and replaced during servicing missions. This mission's primary scientific priority is the installation of Hubble's new instruments, Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS).

Wide Field Camera 3 will be the power behind studies of dark energy and dark matter, the formation of individual stars and the discovery of extremely remote galaxies previously beyond Hubble's vision. WFC3 sees three different kinds of light: near-ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared, though not simultaneously. The camera's range is much greater than that of the instruments currently aboard.

Astronauts will remove Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) to make room for WFC3. WFC3 has a higher "resolution," or ability to distinguish details, and a larger "field of view," or area the camera is able to see, than WFPC2.

Galaxy evolution, the formation of planets, the rise of the elements needed for life, and the "cosmic web" of gas between galaxies will be some of the areas of study for the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). A spectrograph is an instrument that breaks light into its component colors, revealing information about the object emitting the light. COS sees exclusively in ultraviolet light and will improve Hubble's ultraviolet sensitivity at least 10 times, and up to 70 times when observing extremely faint objects.

COS will take the place of the device installed in Hubble during the first servicing mission to correct Hubble's flawed mirror, the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR). Since the first servicing mission, all of Hubble's replacement instruments have had technology built in to them to correct Hubble's marred vision, making COSTAR no longer necessary.

Two of Hubble's instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), are in need of repair. ACS, which partially stopped working in 2007 due to an electrical short, is the "workhorse camera" responsible for some of Hubble's most spectacular images. STIS is a spectrograph that sees ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light, and is known for its ability to hunt black holes. While COS works best with small sources of light, such as stars or quasars, STIS can map out larger objects like galaxies. STIS suffered a power failure in 2004 and was put into hibernation to preserve the possibility of its repair.

Astronauts plan to fix both – a challenging prospect since these repairs are beyond the scope of Hubble’s serviceable design. Hubble’s creators envisioned astronauts swapping out components, not performing delicate surgeries during spacewalks.

An interior electronics box of ACS that supplies power for ACS detectors, contains equipment affected by an electrical short. However, its location makes it inaccessible to astronauts. So instead of trying to reach the problem area, astronauts will attempt to bypass those power-shorted components entirely.

The failed power supply is connected by cables to a series of electronics boards, which are within reach but have no power because of the damaged box. Astronauts will install a new power supply to a handrail on the ACS outer enclosure, remove the electronics boards and install different ones that are compatible with the new power supply, and connect them to the new supply with exterior cables. The arrangement simply cuts the damaged box out of the equation.

STIS needs a new power supply circuit board. The repair would be relatively easy but for the electronics access panel, which was never meant to be opened and is attached to STIS by 111 small screws. The screws are hard to grasp with the astronauts' gloved hands, and could create problems if they were to escape and float around the electronics. So engineers have created a "fastener capture plate" that fits over the top of the panel. When the astronauts remove the screws, they will be trapped in the plate. Astronauts will then switch out the power supply circuit board and close off the open electronics with a new, simpler panel that attaches easily with two levers.

As each of Hubble's instruments and components is repaired or installed, Goddard performs tests to ensure that everything is working correctly. Once the work is completed, Hubble will be ready for peak performance with a grand total of five instruments: WFC3, COS, ACS, STIS and the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph (NICMOS).

Routine Maintenance
But before it can try out its new equipment, the telescope needs maintenance. Hubble's batteries store the energy that powers the telescope during the "nighttime" portion of its orbit, when the Earth blocks the Sun's rays. Astronauts will replace all six of Hubble's 125-pound batteries with new, more effective versions.

The telescope's six gyroscopes are part of the system that points the telescope. When all six gyroscopes are functioning, three gyroscopes are used for pointing, and the other three are held in reserve. Time has degraded the gyroscopes to the point where three have failed, two are in use, and a third is turned off to be used as an emergency backup. Astronauts will install six new gyroscopes.

Hubble's Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) lock onto guide stars, helping the telescope point. They can also be used as instruments to measure the position of stars in relation to other stars. Astronauts will replace one worn-out FGS with a refurbished model that was removed during a previous servicing mission.

Hubble's insulating blankets, which maintain the telescope's normal operating temperature, eventually break down because of their exposure to space. Astronauts will cover key Hubble equipment bays in fresh insulation, also called a New Outer Blanket Layer (NOBL).

Finally, they will install a new device, the "soft capture mechanism." This simple device will allow a robotic spacecraft to attach itself to Hubble someday, once the telescope is at the end of its life.

When the astronauts have finished all of their tasks, they will use the robotic arm again to release the telescope, and Goddard will issue the commands to bring the telescope back into operation. But before Hubble's science mission can resume, the telescope will undergo a several-month-long testing and calibrating period. The first new images from the telescope will be released in early 2009.

Restored and updated, Hubble will continue on its journey around the Earth, its new components merging seamlessly with the old, a rejuvenated telescope ready for years of groundbreaking revelations from the universe.

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Servicing Mission Crew