Above Earth, Fixing Hubble
Credit: STS-125 Crew,
NASA
What is that astronaut doing?
Fixing the
Hubble Space Telescope.
During the fourth servicing mission to upgrade and fix Hubble, astronaut
Michael Good can be seen attached to the shuttle's robotic arm, working in an open panel of Hubble.
Far below, the terminator between day and night can be
seen across planet Earth.
Since Hubble was captured by the
space shuttle Atlantis last Wednesday, five long space-walks have been used to
fix and upgrade the aging telescope.
One of the more
ambitious orbital missions yet taken, the toiling astronauts have upgraded the
Wide Field Camera, fixed the
Advanced Camera for Surveys, repaired the
Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, and replaced
COSTAR with the
Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
Numerous other general repairs included replacing batteries,
gyroscopic sensors, and insulation panels.
Hubble will now undergo
testing as Atlantis prepares to return to
Earth later this week.