STS-125 Shuttle Mission: Hubble Servicing Mission 4 - Page 3

ToSeek · #61 (**permalink**) 10-October-2008, 11:44 PM

Hubble replacement part has glitches of its own

Quote:

Problems with a spare part for the Hubble Space Telescope – which has been stored for years at a NASA centre – may further delay a shuttle mission to repair and upgrade the telescope now targeted for launch in February.

On 28 September, errors were found in Hubble's science data formatter, which relays data between Earth and the probe's science instruments. The failure has prevented the telescope from making observations.

There is an identical formatter – known as 'Side B' – on the telescope, and NASA is planning to boot up that backup system next week. If all goes according to plan, that would restore the telescope to life.

But there is no backup for Side B, so last week NASA decided to delay its mision to service the telescope from October to no earlier than February in order to prepare a replacement part for flight.

Now, preliminary checks into the history of the spare, which has been stored at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, suggest the device might not be ready to fly in February.

ToSeek · #62 (**permalink**) 13-October-2008, 11:38 PM

STS-125 launch target moves to February 17 - crucial week for Hubble

Quote:

STS-125 has been given a new “work-to” launch date of February 17, pending a November 5 meeting that will likely result in a Change Request (CR) to officially re-align the near-term launch manifest.

schlaugh · #63 (**permalink**) 14-October-2008, 10:46 PM

NASA Ready to Reboot Hubble

Quote:

NASA Ready to Reboot Hubble
By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: October 14, 2008
Satisfied that they know what caused the Hubble Space Telescope to shut down two weeks ago, NASA engineers will begin to reboot it Wednesday morning, the space agency said Tuesday.

The telescope should be back to doing normal science by Friday morning, said Art Whipple, manager of the Hubble Space Telescope Systems Management Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

So let's hope it doesn't ask which operating system they want to use...

KaiYeves · #64 (**permalink**) 15-October-2008, 01:18 AM

Whichever one works, of course!

01101001 · #65 (**permalink**) 16-October-2008, 05:51 PM

BA Blog: Hubble update: Looking good so far

Quote:

Yesterday, engineers at NASA started the procedure to turn on Hubble’s spare Science Instrument Control and Data Handling system, the part that went kerflooie a couple of weeks ago. So far, things look good [...]

Round of applause, please, for Side B!

Larry Jacks · #66 (**permalink**) 16-October-2008, 10:24 PM

From Aviation Now:

Controllers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center are calibrating the Hubble Space Telescope's instruments to begin making observations again Friday, after switching the orbiting observatory's Science Instrument Control and Data Handling system to its backup "B" side.

The calibration involves comparing baseline exposures on the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC-2) and other instruments that have been handled by the newly activated B side with the same exposures supported earlier by the "A" side, which failed Sept. 27 and sent the telescope into safe mode (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 30).

If all goes as planned, "a full schedule of science observations with the WFPC2 camera, ACS' Solar Blind Channel camera, and the Fine Guidance Sensors will resume early Friday morning," the Hubble program said this morning.

Swift · #67 (**permalink**) 17-October-2008, 06:15 PM

From nasa.com

Quote:

Hubble Status Update: Oct. 17, 2008 - 1:00 p.m. ET

NASA will host a media teleconference today, October 17, beginning at approximately 3 p.m. ET, to discuss issues recently experienced with the Hubble Space Telescope. The activation of the telescope's science instruments and resumption of observations has been suspended following two anomalies seen in systems on the telescope Thursday.

The briefing participants are Jon Morse, director of the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, and Art Whipple, manager of the Hubble Systems Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

01101001 · #68 (**permalink**) 17-October-2008, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swift

From nasa.com

News Audio Live Streaming:

Quote:

4 p.m. EDT, Friday, Oct. 17
Hubble Mission

About 20 minutes from time of posting.

===

Earlier BA Blog: Hubble fix hits snag, is delayed

No more hard news in article, but active comments may have fresher content.

Swift · #69 (**permalink**) 17-October-2008, 09:49 PM

From here

Quote:

Activation of Hubble Space Telescope science instruments and resumption of science observations has been suspended following two anomalies seen in systems onboard the telescope yesterday.

The first event occurred at approximately 1:40 PM on Thursday when the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) suspended operations due to indication that one power source in the Solar Blind Camera’s low voltage power supply failed to turn on. This was the first turn on of the Solar Blind Camera since its last use prior to the safing of HST’s NASA Standard Spacecraft Computer, version 1 (NSSC-1) on 9/27. (The NSSC-1 is Hubble’s science computer.) The Solar Blind Channel is the only part of ACS in use since a power failure in January 2007 halted most ACS science observations.

An initial status briefing to discuss the ACS issue began at 5 p.m. on Thursday. During the briefing, at 5:14 PM, a still-undiagnosed problem affecting the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SI C&DH) system caused the NSSC-1 to stop issuing its keep-alive signal. The Hubble spacecraft computer (HST486) detected the cessation of the keep-alive signal as a failure of its Processor Interface Table (PIT) toggle test. The absence of the keep-alive signal for twenty seconds told the HST486 to issue commands to safe HST’s science computer and science instruments.

The first step taken in investigating the NSSC-1 safing was to collect a memory dump. This dump was success. The data shows that yesterday’s anomaly is likely different from the one that occurred on Sept. 27.

Initial indications point to a potential problem in the B-side of the Computer Processing Module (CPM-B). The CPM-B had not been used on orbit prior to Wednesday evening’s activation of Side B of the Science Instrument Control & Data Handling (SIC&DH) unit.

The spacecraft computer is continuing to execute command loads sent to it from the Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC) at GSFC, and all of its subsystems are nominal.

The investigation is continuing. Contingency procedures for a potential switch to a hybrid SI C&DH configuration that would use portions of its Side A and portions of its Side B were tested this morning in HST Program’s Vehicle Electrical System Test (VEST) Facility, a high fidelity mock-up of Hubble that resides in a cleanroom at Goddard.

Swift · #70 (**permalink**) 20-October-2008, 04:03 PM

Atlantis is going back to the barn
NASA.gov

Quote:

Oct. 20, 2008
A crawler began carrying space shuttle Atlantis back to the Vehicle Assembly Building just before dawn this morning, clearing the way for Endeavour to move to Launch Pad 39A on Saturday. The rollback began at 6:48 a.m. EDT.

The rollback to the VAB at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center will take about six hours with the crawler registering a speed of less than 1 mile per hour. The move was required when Atlantis’ mission to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was postponed because of technical issues the Hubble developed in space.

Atlantis will be parked inside the VAB until NASA managers set a new target launch date for the STS-125 mission.

HypothesisTesting · #71 (**permalink**) 20-October-2008, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

The (STS-124) shuttle mission is dead. Long live the (STS-125) shuttle mission.

Just wait until the multiyear Constellation gap rolls around. Then finally there will almost be a whole, new generation becoming aware, never knowing the USA did manned launches.

Future discussion: "Do you want to be an astronaut when you grow up?" "Astronaut? What's that?"

Yeah, but for us who remember Apollo first hand, the whole shuttle program 1981-2008 has been a complete bore anyway.

Good riddens to shuttle, and now on to resume the real space program to the moon and mars, which they should have commenced in 1972 anyway.

I doubt Goddard and von Braun had the shuttle in mind as the end all of space exploration.

Swift · #72 (**permalink**) 20-October-2008, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HypothesisTesting

Yeah, but for us who remember Apollo first hand, the whole shuttle program 1981-2008 has been a complete bore anyway.

Good riddens to shuttle, and now on to resume the real space program to the moon and mars, which they should have commenced in 1972 anyway.

Not to completely hijack this thread, there are some who fondly remember Apollo, wish it had continued, but do not think the shuttle was "a bore". The shuttle program did some pretty exciting things too.

HypothesisTesting · #73 (**permalink**) 20-October-2008, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swift

Not to completely hijack this thread, there are some who fondly remember Apollo, wish it had continued, but do not think the shuttle was "a bore". The shuttle program did some pretty exciting things too.

Your point of view seems reasonable. The Apollo did great things, shuttle did a few interesting things like service HST. I'm just impatient and don't buy the arguments that the Apollo missions needed to be curtailed in favor of the shuttle. I would have liked to see a moon base by 2000 (in fact, in 1969 I was POSITIVE there would have been).

Back then I was naive to how small minded people like congressmen were. I figured that if this absolutely unbelievable accomplishment of putting 12 men on the moon occured, it was impossible the leadership wouldn't get on the bandwagon and really go for manned exploration of space. I now understand the full dimensions of the massive ignorance and short sightedness of so many in leadership and society.

KaiYeves · #74 (**permalink**) 21-October-2008, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Not to completely hijack this thread, there are some who fondly remember Apollo, wish it had continued, but do not think the shuttle was "a bore". The shuttle program did some pretty exciting things too.

I'm with you.

01101001 · #75 (**permalink**) 23-October-2008, 09:47 PM

BA Blog: Hubble is getting better

Quote:

So the good news is, while a few days were lost, engineers are ready to get Hubble back on its feet, so to speak. They’re hoping to have it up and running by this weekend!

Hopefully we’ll know more by tomorrow or Saturday. I’ll post more when I find out.

01101001 · #76 (**permalink**) 27-October-2008, 11:20 PM

Planetary Society Weblog: One Hubble camera ready for business

Quote:

Just a quick update on Hubble here: As you may recall, a glitch within a computer system on September 27 caused it to quit most science operations, and an earlier attempt to revive it didn't work as expected. But the news is getting better: a few hours ago, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 was brought up out of safe mode. A NASA status report says the camera will "resume science operations shortly."

Edit: And, from another of our favorite bloggers, BA Blog: Hubble on the road to recovery

Quote:

I’m glad I spotted this on Emily’s blog. Sadly, there’s no RSS feed on that page from NASA (sigh). But I’ll try to stay on top of this; I imagine NASA will send out a press notice when the new images are released.

We’re not all the way home yet — the Shuttle still needs to get up there and place out a lot of equipment, including installing a backup for the backup that’s now being used to control the cameras. Still…

Yay! Congrats to the engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA!

I guess they are among each other's favorite bloggers, too.

KaiYeves · #77 (**permalink**) 28-October-2008, 02:31 AM

It's alive!

crosscountry · #78 (**permalink**) 30-October-2008, 04:14 AM

I found this today

http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/20..._update_3.html

01101001 · #79 (**permalink**) 30-October-2008, 06:23 PM

BA Blog: Hubble Telescope, back on the air!

Presents a pretty picture of Arp 147, interacting galaxies.

Quote:

But the good news is that this is from the Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2, which was shut down until a few days ago. It went offline when engineers were trying to restore Hubble back to speed after a major piece of hardware failed. They were able to get a backup piece working, but other problems delayed the operation. Now, however, things are looking good, and it looks like we have a working telescope.

Swift · #80 (**permalink**) 30-October-2008, 08:50 PM

Here's the NASA.gov page on it

Quote:

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in business.

Just a couple of days after the orbiting observatory was brought back online, Hubble aimed its prime working camera, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), at a particularly intriguing target, a pair of gravitationally interacting galaxies called Arp 147.

The image demonstrated that the camera is working exactly as it was before going offline, thereby scoring a "perfect 10" both for performance and beauty.

The image

KaiYeves · #81 (**permalink**) 31-October-2008, 02:15 AM

Hang ten with Hubble!

01101001 · #82 (**permalink**) 31-October-2008, 04:05 AM

AP: New snag for Hubble, no repair mission before May

Quote:

The Hubble Space Telescope is working again, taking stunning cosmic photos after a breakdown a month ago. But the good news was quickly tempered by NASA's announcement Thursday that a mission to upgrade the popular telescope will be delayed at least until May.

A key replacement part that is essential because of the telescope's failure in September won't be ready for at least six months.

This topic could be a long-lived one.

Quote:

The delay also may hinder another bigger NASA program, its new moon rocket that NASA hopes to launch by 2015. The space agency needs to spend several years reconfiguring a Kennedy Space Center launch pad for the new moon rocket testing. But that's the pad the Hubble repair mission will launch from.

D'oh!

===

Links
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)
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)

Launch target is under review
Launch probably no earlier than May 2009

01101001 · #83 (**permalink**) 04-December-2008, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

Launch target is under review
Launch probably no earlier than May 2009

Here we go.

NASA Press Release: NASA Sets Target Shuttle Launch Date for Hubble Servicing Mission

Quote:

NASA announced Thursday that space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope is targeted to launch May 12, 2009.

About 5 months to launch

crosscountry · #84 (**permalink**) 05-December-2008, 02:08 PM

let's hope it goes this time.

matthewota · #85 (**permalink**) 06-December-2008, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HypothesisTesting

Yeah, but for us who remember Apollo first hand, the whole shuttle program 1981-2008 has been a complete bore anyway.

Good riddens to shuttle, and now on to resume the real space program to the moon and mars, which they should have commenced in 1972 anyway.

I doubt Goddard and von Braun had the shuttle in mind as the end all of space exploration.

It is easy to criticize (hindsight is 20/20) but the political situation in 1972 in the United States precluded advancing manned spaceflight beyond what Apollo did. There was no politcal or public support for going to Mars at that time I know because I was alive to see the attitudes of the time.

ToSeek · #86 (**permalink**) 19-February-2009, 09:07 PM

Oh, Hubble, Can This Really Be the End?

Quote:

The spectacular collision between two satellites on Feb. 10 could make the shuttle mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope too risky to attempt.

Before the collision, space junk problems had already upped the Hubble mission's risk of a "catastrophic impact" beyond NASA's usual limits, Nature's Geoff Brumfiel reported today, and now the problem will be worse.

Mark Matney, an orbital debris specialist at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas told the publication that even before the collision, the risk of an impact was 1 in 185, which was "uncomfortably close to unacceptable levels" and the satellite collision "is only going to add on to that."

Matney said that it could be one or two weeks before NASA knows if the mission will go ahead. If it does, the shuttle Atlantis is expected to reach the telescope in mid-May.

KaiYeves · #87 (**permalink**) 19-February-2009, 10:03 PM

Oh, dear...

01101001 · #88 (**permalink**) 08-March-2009, 05:48 AM

Florida Today: NASA: [STS-119] Shuttle's risk of debris strike up 6 percent

Quote:

[NASA is analyzing quantity of debris from recent Iridium collision.]

NASA is still assessing the risk to the upcoming Hubble repair space shuttle mission, targeted to fly in late May. The danger to this trip could be greater, managers said, because that shuttle is set to take its crew to an altitude of about 372 miles (600 km), putting it much closer to the range of the collision than the space station is.

"That didn't look so good, when they looked at that," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's space operations chief, has said.

(Also cited in STS-119 topic.)

SpaceCowboy · #89 (**permalink**) 15-March-2009, 02:55 AM

I'm really looking forward to this mission. I think it took a big step for NASA to approve the first (and most likely only) post-Columbia non ISS mission.

KaiYeves · #90 (**permalink**) 15-March-2009, 09:59 PM

Most likely. Unless they decide to recover it. Which would be AWESOME.

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