Hubble servicing mission 4 status (title edited) - Page 5

schlaugh · #**121** (**permalink**) 04-December-2007, 07:44 PM

Nice read on the mission to re-fit Hubble. Go the link for multi-media and graphics

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/sc...l?pagewanted=1

Quote:

By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: December 4, 2007
GREENBELT, Md. — It’s the last roundup for the People’s Telescope.

Next August, after 20 years of hype, disappointment, blunders, triumphs and peerless glittering vistas of space and time, and four years after NASA decided to leave the Hubble Space Telescope to die in orbit, setting off public and Congressional outrage, a group of astronauts will ride to the telescope aboard the space shuttle Atlantis with wrenches in hand.

That, at least, is the plan.

“It’s been a roller coaster ride from hell,” Preston Burch, the space telescope’s project manager, said in his office here at the Goddard Space Flight Center of the controversy and uncertainty.

ToSeek · #**122** (**permalink**) 04-December-2007, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schlaugh

Nice read on the mission to re-fit Hubble. Go the link for multi-media and graphics

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/sc...l?pagewanted=1

Good find. I moved it here to be in the same thread as the ongoing discussion about this mission.

Romanus · #**123** (**permalink**) 07-December-2007, 03:33 PM

After the upcoming MESSENGER flyby, the HST servicing mission is my most eagerly-anticipated moment of 2008.

ToSeek · #**124** (**permalink**) 08-January-2008, 06:03 PM

NASA announces details of Hubble servicing mission

Quote:

NASA scientists and a space shuttle astronaut today outlined details of a challenging mission that will repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008.

The Hubble servicing mission, designated STS-125, will equip the orbiting observatory with far greater capabilities than ever had before to explore the nature and history of our universe.

Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to lift off in August with a crew of seven astronauts and a cargo of equipment, tools and new instruments on the fifth and final mission to service the venerable telescope, which orbits 350 miles above the Earth. The shuttle also will carry an IMAX camera to record the historic mission for a film scheduled for release in 2010.

tofu · #**125** (**permalink**) 09-January-2008, 10:07 PM

Upgraded Hubble telescope to be 90 times as powerful

Quote:

Space shuttle astronauts will attempt an unprecedented in-orbit repair of key Hubble Space Telescope (HST) instruments during the servicing mission scheduled for August 2008. The repairs, along with the addition of two new instruments, will make Hubble 90 times as powerful as it was after its flawed optics were corrected in 1993.

NEOWatcher · #**126** (**permalink**) 10-January-2008, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Both repairs involve astronauts unfastening dozens of tiny screws to replace some circuit boards on each of the instruments – all while wearing bulky spacesuit gloves. Such a feat has never been attempted before in space.
The astronauts will also have to cut through metal layers to reach the circuit boards, creating sharp edges that could be hazardous to spacesuits.

Ok; that sounds very difficult and impressive, and I don't want to take away from the feat, but I do think it needs some clarification.

What feat has never been attempted before...he unscrewing, the replacement of a circuit board, or the fact that it's tiny? And what is considered tiny when you are wearing a spacesuit?

ToSeek · #**127** (**permalink**) 17-January-2008, 03:16 PM

2008 Hubble Launching Questionable

Quote:

NASA’s final shuttle flight to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope will not take place until its safe, according to the agency’s science chief. The agency’s planned August 2008 launch to Hubble with seven astronauts abroad the Atlantis Orbit will depend on the success of three other shuttle flights due to lift off in the next few months. This announcement was made by Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate.

NEOWatcher · #**128** (**permalink**) 17-January-2008, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToSeek

2008 Hubble Launching Questionable

I don't think there's anything new there, just some reinforcement of what we already knew.

Quote:

Atlantis and its STS-12S astronaut crew will fly the fifth servicing mission to Hubble since 1990 when the laboratory’s launch occurred.

5th?

Besides, launching the mission with the astronauts out of the country could be an issue.

ngc3314 · #**129** (**permalink**) 17-January-2008, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NEOWatcher

5th?

Yes -

SM 1 STS-61, December 1993
SM 2 STS-82, February 1997
SM 3A STS-103, December 1999
SM 3B STS-109, March 2002
SM 4 STS-125, sometime coming up

01101001 · #**130** (**permalink**) 21-March-2008, 04:34 PM

SpaceflightNow: Hubble servicing mission's launch date threatened

Quote:

[...] subsequent near-term flights, including a high-profile mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, could be delayed, sources say, because of ongoing external tank production issues.
[...]
Safe haven aboard the space station is not an option for Atlantis' crew if major heat shield damage occurs. The observatory and the station are in different orbits and the shuttle does not have the ability to move from one to the other. As a result, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin early on approved plans to have a second shuttle, Endeavour, ready for launch on a rescue mission just in case.

That means NASA needs two ready-to-fly external tanks for the Hubble mission, ET-127 and ET-129 respectively. Manpower and production issues, triggered in part by unplanned work to upgrade low-level hydrogen fuel sensors and other post-Columbia design upgrades, have slowed external tank manufacturing and sources say the Hubble mission faces a possible delay to October.

ToSeek · #**131** (**permalink**) 01-May-2008, 05:09 PM

NASA: Hubble mission slips four to five weeks

Quote:

The late August launch of NASA's fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission will be pushed back four to five weeks due to shuttle external tank production delays, a NASA official said today.

Atlantis and seven astronauts had been scheduled to blast off Aug. 28 from Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A, setting sail on a high-profile mission to equip NASA's flagship observatory with powerful new science instruments and new batteries and gyroscopes that will enable the telescope to operate until at least 2013.

"We really cannot make that date with the external tank processing schedule," NASA shuttle program manager John Shannon said during preflight briefings for the planned May 31 launch of Discovery and seven astronauts on a mission to deliver the Japanese Kibo science laboratory module to the International Space Station.

NASA now is aiming to launch the mission in late September or early October, Shannon said.

ToSeek · #**132** (**permalink**) 09-May-2008, 09:45 PM

From a Goddard internal email:

Quote:

CHECK OUT THE NEW HUBBLE SERVICING MISSION 4 (SM4) PORTAL SITE: Information and updates, including a RSS news feed, fact sheets, and multimedia features, on the new SM4 portal site will keep you in the know as the Hubble team works towards launch later this year. Check out the news on the new Hubble SM4 portal site at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hu...ing/index.html

01101001 · #**133** (**permalink**) 23-May-2008, 12:58 AM

NASA Updates Space Shuttle Target Launch Dates

Quote:

NASA Thursday adjusted the target launch dates for two space shuttle missions in 2008. Shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope is now targeted for Oct. 8 [...]

The final servicing mission to Hubble was moved from Aug. 28 due to a delay in deliveries of components, including the external fuel tanks, and the need to prepare Endeavour for a possible rescue mission approximately two weeks after STS-125 launches.

ToSeek · #**134** (**permalink**) 02-June-2008, 09:02 PM

2 shuttles to be on pads

Quote:

Atlantis and Endeavour are on track for the planned October launch of a Hubble Space Telescope repair mission, and people here are gearing up for a rare sight.
Advertisement

"It'll be the first time in quite some time that we've had a vehicle on each pad simultaneously, so we're looking forward to that," NASA Launch Director Mike Leinbach said Saturday.

Atlantis will be rolled out to Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A, where seven astronauts will blast off on a mission to service the Hubble telescope.

The telescope repair crew will not be able to seek safe haven on the International Space Station if Atlantis sustains serious damage in flight. Hubble is in a different orbit, and Atlantis couldn't reach the outpost in an emergency.

NASA consequently will roll sister ship Endeavour out to Launch Complex 39B, where the orbiter will be ready to launch on a rescue mission if need be.

crosscountry · #**135** (**permalink**) 27-June-2008, 02:56 PM

is there a concise list of everything that will be done? I've seen a few things here and there but nothing all together.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode