I thought FUSE's issues were with reaction wheels, not gyros.

Ah, thanks. So they prefer to eat before the job. Don't think I could cope on a long shift. If I miss a meal I get real snappy.

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Coming up (times EDT):

05/16/09:
04:31 AM: Crew wakeup [Edit: moved to 05:31]
08:16 AM: EVA-3 begins [Edit: moved to 09:16, etc.]
08:46 AM: COSTAR/COS R&R
11:36 AM: ACS repair
01:31 PM: ACS powerup
02:46 PM: EVA-3 ends
03:30 PM: Mission briefing
05:16 PM: HD downlink
08:31 PM: Crew sleep begins
08:45 PM: HST update
09:00 PM: Daily highlights

Links. Wash before using.

NASA Space Shuttle Mission Pages
NASA STS-125 Mission Status Updates
NASA STS-125 Mission Information
NASA STS-125 Mission Overview
NASA Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4 Overview
NASA News Twitter
Wikipedia: STS-125
NASA Launch Schedule
NASA Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Countdown Status
NASA Shuttle Launch and Landing
NASA Shuttle Launch Blog (active about 6 hours before liftoff)
NASA Shuttle Landing Blog (active about 2 hours before touchdown)
National Weather Service, Southeast Sector, Base Reflectivity
National Weather Service, Melbourne Florida, Hourly Weather Forecast Graph
CBS News Space Place
Spaceflight Now STS-125 Mission Coverage
Spaceflight Now STS-125 Mission Status Center
BANews Twitter
BAUT Forum topic STS-119 Space Shuttle Mission (previous mission)
NASA TV (or NASA TV Yahoo! source or high-resolution)

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I remembered both. Type, click - ahh, this report clears it up a bit . Adding some notes for spectators - the major failures were reaction wheels (otherwise known as gyrodynes on some missions, but the differences between reaction wheels, control-moment gyros, and gyrodynes are subtle enough that I'd want to dig before using one of the terms; Google's best hit on the subject is, unsurprisingly, by Henry Spencer), compounded by loss of at least one actual primary/backup gyro set (what in HST parlance would be rate sensing units). As far as I can tell, FUSE's last operating mode used one reaction wheel and two gyros, with the missing control authority provided by the geomagnetic field and orientation sensing from the star tracker. At one point the operations staff reported that, in a set of tests, they had their lowest pointing jitter with no reaction wheels spinning. I was really impressed that they got this mode working at all. But, contrary to my memory, they didn't ever run it with zero reaction wheels or no sensing gyros at all. My bad).

But we digress, even if licensed to do so...

About one hour from the start of EVA-3.

NASA TV (or NASA TV Yahoo! source or high-resolution)

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my apologies ... derail/hijack not intended

slang, there's another picture in the newspapers today....I happen to see one, in The Times...am sure, these excellent images are in all papers, everywhere...as they should be...

so when I pointed it out / explained it, at the shop counter, one lady asked me about that yellow thing..."what's that?"! ...

Most were suitably 'wowed', it was a bit early in the morning.

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clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

zero one...I am looking at Atlantis, through your link at the NASA tv / yahoo....It's an awesome experience...this is happening in front of my eyes...in real time...and tracking Atlantis and Hubble, through another tab...lovely...

thanks a bunch.

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clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

Quite amazing. Grunsfeld and Feustel are both out in the payload area.
Atlantis in the 'night' part, over Australia...
fantastic to see the activity.

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clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

It was a nice sight when one astronaut grabbed the other one's feet to help him get/keep in position. Use your work mate as a tool.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

It's fascinating to see the action. They are sooo busy there.

Really wonderful. It's great to be able to appreciate the speed of their transit across the globe. When they were over Mexico / Gulf / Florida / West Indies, into Atlantic, one of the cameras, which is positioned, how shall I put it, overneath, captured the speed, fast rolling clouds and patches of blues passing hastily underneath / overneath. Almost got vertigo there, myself....

I can't do justice, expressing myself, for this event happening in front of me.

They are looping over Africa, towards the Indian Ocean, again into the 'night' part...soon

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clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

A lot of my work mates are tools.

==

Now, 75 minutes into EVA-3. They're pulling out phone-booth (kids: back in the day, they had little house for public telephones) sized COSTAR.

Coming up: insert COS into hole left by COSTAR.

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COSTAR was the "glasses" of Hubble, right? Well, a man has to change his glasses after a few years if he wants to stay in fashion.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

I don't think COSTAR had been in use since the last servicing mission though.

Funny. Shows how strange the most common object in the sky can be when you take it out of its usual context.

Yeah, Hubble changed to contacts.

I hope they get ACS fixed.. fingers crossed.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.

Doing the ACS now -- today's most challenging task.

NASA Servicing Mission 4: ACS Instrument and repair overview

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Watching Grunsfeld working on the card cage I almost expect Hubble to begin singing "Daisy".

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

That is why opening the pod bay doors was a manual task.

Are the 4 new cards they are replacing today upgrades or simply replacements?

What is the path of their communications? Is it all satellite until they beam to Houston or is there a ground-to-ground component?

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

Do their communications go through the TDRS system?

According the the task link above, the new cards are physically smaller and logically enhanced by an ASIC:

So some of their functionality can now be tweaked over time. Which sounds like an FPGA... Let's check... FPGA is present. NASA ACS-Repair: ACS Hardware Description 2/3:

Off to read...

Edit: Cards in, power work done, ACS all done. On to cleanup. And filing paperwork.

That went smooth. Hubble must not feel mischievous today.

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Yes. (Speaking as someone who worked on TDRSS back in the day.)

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

Closing Hubble doors... "Bye COS, bye ACS!"

__________________
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.

How does Hubble correct its vision if it doesn't use COSTAR anymore?

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Solar transit of STS-125: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/3531410425/
Maybe old hat, but my webtime is running out

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Mars Society.

The correction is built into the optics of all instruments built after launch. Each has enough optical elements that this means a change in the optical prescription of existing elements, not having to add new ones.

Edit to add: Since no such instruments have been onboard since SM3B, COSTAR has been acting mostly as a counterweight since then anyway.

Wow, that Pistol Grip Tool (PGT) is the most tricked-out cordless drill I've ever seen. Not only does it have programmable torque and rotation limit settings, it's also shiny.

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“There’s nothing that spells progress in large, friendly letters like trying to combine two totally incompatible technologies.” – David Szondy, Tales of Future Past.

It's space. Everything is shiny. Read more vintage comics.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

All the second (and later) generation instruments have had built-in prescriptions for correction of the spherical aberration. Only the FOC, FOS, and GHRS used COSTAR.

(hence my joke about switching to contacts)

Spaceflight Now: "A good aliveness test for the Advanced Camera for Surveys has been reported from Hubble ground control."

Great news!

ETA: did they announce a new time for the briefing yet?

__________________
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.

NASA Twitter:

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Thanks. Just now on NASA TV: no earlier than 4:00 PM central, 5:00 EDT, 9:00 UT, 11:00 euro time.

__________________
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin
"Your right to hold an opinion is not being contested. Your expectation that it be taken seriously is." -- Jason Thompson
Meet the OOONG TOE.