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STS-125: The mission

A detailed step-by-step preview of space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to extend the life and vision of the Hubble Space Telescope.

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STS-125: The EVAs

The lead spacewalk officer provides indepth explanations of the five EVAs to service Hubble during Atlantis' flight.

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STS-125: The crew

The seven shuttle Atlantis astronauts hold a press conference one month before their planned launch to Hubble.

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STS-125: NASA leaders

The leaders of NASA's Space Operations and Science directorates give their insights into the upcoming shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

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STS-125: Shuttle boss

The head of NASA's space shuttle program discusses the risks and plans for Atlantis' trek to Hubble.

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The Hubble program

An overview of the Hubble Space Telescope program and the planning that has gone into the final servicing mission.

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Hubble's future science

The new instruments to be installed into Hubble and the future science objectives for the observatory are previewed.

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Meet the Hubble crew

Meet the crew launching on Atlantis' STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope and learn how each became an astronaut in this special biography movie.

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Atlantis to reach the Hubble Space Telescope today
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: May 13, 2009

In the final stages of a complex rendezvous, the shuttle Atlantis closed in on the Hubble Space Telescope early Wednesday, on track for a robot arm capture that will set the stage for a challenging five-spacewalk service call. Astronaut Megan McArthur, operating the shuttle's 50-foot-long space crane, plans to grapple the telescope around 12:54 p.m. and then mount it on a service platform at the back of Atlantis' payload bay.


An artist's concept shows Atlantis approaching Hubble for capture. Credit: NASA TV
 
Late Tuesday, Hubble's aperture door was closed and overnight, it's twin high-gain antennas were retracted to prepare the observatory for capture.

The terminal phase of the rendezvous begins at 10:41 a.m. with a critical rocket firing designed to close the final few miles between the shuttle and the bus-size space telescope. Commander Scott Altman, flying Atlantis from the ship's aft flight deck, plans to approach the observatory from below, matching velocities as the two spacecraft steak 340 miles above the north coast of Madagascar at 5 miles per second (interested readers and check on the location of the shuttle and Hubble with GoogleSatTrack at: http://www.lizard-tail.com/isana/tracking/)

"Rendezvousing with Hubble is a little different than going to space station," Altman said in a NASA interview. "Obviously, it's in a different orbit, but it's also a small target compared to how big station has gotten, and it doesn't help us out as much during the rendezvous in that station has a little system that gives it range and range rate as you get close. Hubble is just passive, it's sitting there, it doesn't have reflectors. So we're using a little handheld laser, which is kind of like a police radar gun that you would see on the side of the road, to get the distance and the closing rate as we're coming up to Hubble. We're doing it basically by hand."

In the final phases of the approach, "I'm looking out the window, watching Hubble, and then listening to the calls that my other operators are making by using that laser range finder about how close we are and how fast we're going to know what input to make as we get close to it. So I think it's a more challenging rendezvous than having as much information as the station guys have."

This is Altman's second Hubble visit in a row and "at one point last mission we talked about putting a reflector on Hubble to make it easier for the next guy, but I thought, well, you know, it was hard for me; let it be as hard for the next guy. Now it turns out I am the next guy so I realize that was shortsighted of me!

Once Atlantis closes to within a few feet of Hubble, Altman will fly in formation with the telescope to give McArthur a stable target.

"If I've done my part well and flown up to Hubble gracefully, I can stop and I say, OK, I'm going to go to free drift, which means I'm not making any more inputs, and that we'll stay close together without much motion to make it easier for her to reach out and grab it. We also train to grab it if it's moving a little bit but my job is to make it as stable and easy as possible for the arm operator to go out and get."

McArthur, making her first space flight, said she doesn't anticipate any problems.

"As soon as we're comfortable that the orbiter's rate has been matched to the telescope and the telescope looks to me like it's stable and not moving, then I take the robotic arm, the shuttle's robotic arm, and I reach out and grab the telescope," she said in a NASA interview. "There is a grapple fixture, a pin, basically, on the side of the telescope, that we use. The robotic arm grabs onto that. Once we have a good capture of the telescope, I then maneuver the robotic arm, to install the telescope into a berthing mechanism at the back end of the shuttle payload bay. And once we have installed the telescope in that berthing mechanism, we latch it down and I can release the shuttle's robotic arm."

Hubble will be mounted on a rotating service platform that can position the telescope as required for servicing. A detailed photo survey will be carried out shortly after capture to document the condition of Hubble's exterior and its aging insulation and an electrical cable will be remotely plugged to provide shuttle power for the duration of the service call.

Engineers are anxious to get a good look at Hubble's insulation to find out how it may have degraded over the seven years since the last shuttle visit in 2002.

"When we arrive, I expect it not to look a lot different than it did on STS-109 (in 2002), but I do expect that ... some of the multi-layer insulation on the outside of the telescope will be peeled back a little bit more," lead spacewalker John Grunsfeld, making his third visit to Hubble, said before launch.

"The environment where Hubble is is pretty severe, the temperature extremes, atomic oxygen, the solar ultraviolet, all those nasty things in space are what is causing the telescope (exterior) to degrade. It's somewhat expected. Hubble has been in space for (19) years, it's pretty remarkable it's doing as well as it has. What I remember so vividly from the last missions is that once you open up the inside of the telescope, it looks absolutely brand new. We expect that to be the case as well."

The astronauts will review spacewalk procedures late this afternoon before going to bed at 8:31 p.m. Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel plan to begin the mission's first EVA at 8:16 a.m. Thursday.

Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision B of the NASA television schedule):


EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

05/13/09
05:01 AM...01...15...00...Crew wakeup
06:16 AM...01...16...15...HST: High gain antenna retraction
07:26 AM...01...17...25...Group B computer powerup
07:41 AM...01...17...40...Rendezvous operations timeline begins
08:11 AM...01...18...10...Middeck preps
08:41 AM...01...18...40...EVA-1; Tools configured
08:51 AM...01...18...50...HST: Solar arrays slewed to 90 degrees
09:02 AM...01...19...01...NC-4 rendezvous rocket firing
10:41 AM...01...20...40...TI rendezvous rocket firing
12:01 PM...01...22...00...HST: Move to capture attitude
12:54 PM...01...22...53...HST capture
01:46 PM...01...23...45...HST berthing
02:01 PM...02...00...00...HST survey
02:16 PM...02...00...15...External power on
02:46 PM...02...00...45...Group B power down
03:56 PM...02...01...55...Shuttle robot arm (SRMS) park
04:00 PM...02...01...59...Mission status briefing on NTV
04:21 PM...02...02...20...HST: Solar arrays slewed to 0 degrees
04:41 PM...02...02...40...EVA-1: Procedures review
05:41 PM...02...03...40...HDTV downlink
08:31 PM...02...06...30...Crew sleep begins
08:31 PM...02...06...30...HST: KU-band checkout
08:45 PM...02...06...44...Space telescope update
09:00 PM...02...06...59...Daily video highlights reel on NTV
10:01 PM...02...08...00...HST: Engineering data playback

Spaceflight Now Plus
Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: NARRATED PREVIEW ANIMATION OF HUBBLE RENDEZVOUS PLAY

VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: TUESDAY NIGHT UPDATE FROM HST CONTROL CENTER PLAY
VIDEO: TUESDAY'S MISSION MANAGEMENT TEAM UPDATE PLAY
VIDEO: SLOW-MOTION OF DEBRIS THAT APPARENTLY HIT TILES PLAY
VIDEO: TILE DAMAGE FOUND DURING INSPECTIONS PLAY
VIDEO: CAPCOM CALLS CREW ABOUT MINOR DAMAGE PLAY
VIDEO: TUESDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: PREVIEW ANIMATION OF HEAT SHIELD INSPECTIONS PLAY

VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: THE FULL STS-125 LAUNCH EXPERIENCE PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: EXTERNAL TANK CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: FOOTAGE OF FUEL TANK AFTER JETTISON PLAY

VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: FRONT CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: BEACH TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PAD PERIMETER PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: UCS-23 TRACKER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-1 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-2 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA CS-6 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: VAB ROOF PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: PRESS SITE PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: WEST TOWER PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 009 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 041 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 049 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 050 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 051 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 060 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 061 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 063 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 070 PLAY
VIDEO: LAUNCH REPLAY: CAMERA 071 PLAY

VIDEO: SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS BLASTS OFF! PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: STS-125 POST-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
VIDEO: INSIDE MISSION CONTROL DURING LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF DAY 1 INSPECTIONS PLAY

VIDEO: FINAL PRE-LAUNCH READINESS POLLS CONDUCTED PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE'S CREW MODULE HATCH CLOSED FOR FLIGHT PLAY
VIDEO: MISSION SPECIALIST MEGAN MCARTHUR BOARDS PLAY
VIDEO: PILOT GREG JOHNSON BOARDS ATLANTIS PLAY
VIDEO: MISSION SPECIALIST JOHN GRUNSFELD BOARDS PLAY
VIDEO: SHUTTLE COMMANDER SCOTT ALTMAN BOARDS PLAY
VIDEO: CREW DEPARTS QUARTERS FOR LAUNCH PAD PART 1 | PART 2
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS DON SPACESUITS FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE OF LAUNCH PAD GANTRY ROLLBACK PLAY

VIDEO: HUBBLE'S FUTURE AFTER ATLANTIS SERVICING PLAY
VIDEO: TOP DISCOVERIES MADE BY HUBBLE TELESCOPE PLAY
VIDEO: THE ROLLERCOASTER LIFE OF HUBBLE PLAY
VIDEO: WHAT IS HUBBLE'S PLACE IN HISTORY? PLAY
VIDEO: ENTERTAINING LOOK AT ATLANTIS' CREW PLAY
VIDEO: HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE HISTORY MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: A TRIBUTE TO THE CAMERA THAT SAVED HUBBLE PLAY
VIDEO: HUBBLE TELESCOPE PROGRAM BRIEFING FROM SUNDAY PLAY

VIDEO: SUNDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS AND WEATHER UPDATE PLAY
VIDEO: THE STS-125 PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS AND WEATHER UPDATE PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT THE CAPE FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS AND WEATHER UPDATE PLAY

VIDEO: NEWS BRIEFING FOLLOWING FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW PLAY

VIDEO: REFRESHER BRIEFING: THE STS-125 MISSION PLAY
VIDEO: REFRESHER BRIEFING: HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE PLAY
VIDEO: REFRESHER BRIEFING: THE SEVEN ASTRONAUTS PLAY

VIDEO: BIOGRAPHY MOVIE OF ATLANTIS' CREW PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH COMMANDER SCOTT ALTMAN PLAY | '09 UPDATE
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH PILOT GREG JOHNSON PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS1 MIKE GOOD PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS2 MEGAN MCARTHUR PLAY
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS3 JOHN GRUNSFELD PLAY | '09 UPDATE
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS4 MIKE MASSIMINO PLAY | '09 UPDATE
VIDEO: INTERVIEW WITH MS5 DREW FEUSTEL PLAY | '09 UPDATE

VIDEO: SHUTTLE ATLANTIS ARRIVES AT LAUNCH PAD 39A PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: THE SUN RISES ON ATLANTIS DURING ROLLOUT PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: ATLANTIS EMERGES FROM ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: ORBITER VERTICAL FOR MATING TO FUEL TANK PLAY | HI-DEF
VIDEO: ATLANTIS MOVES BACK TO ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: ATLANTIS LEAVES LAUNCH PAD 39A IN OCT. PLAY
VIDEO: TIMELAPSE OF THE ROLLBACK GETTING UNDERWAY PLAY

VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS REHEARSE QUICK SHUTTLE EXIT PLAY
VIDEO: CREW BOARDS ATLANTIS FOR MOCK COUNTDOWN PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS DON SUITS FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY
VIDEO: CREW'S TRAINING ON ESCAPE BASKETS AND BUNKER PLAY
VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS CHAT WITH PRESS AT LAUNCH PAD PLAY
VIDEO: CREW TEST DRIVES EMERGENCY PAD ESCAPE VEHICLE PLAY
VIDEO: COMMANDER AND PILOT PRACTICE LANDING APPROACHES PLAY
VIDEO: CREW ARRIVES AT CAPE FOR PRACTICE COUNTDOWN PLAY
VIDEO: COMMENTS FROM COMMANDER AFTER ARRIVING PLAY

VIDEO: AERIAL VIEWS OF ATLANTIS AND ENDEAVOUR PLAY | HI-DEF

VIDEO: PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING: THE STS-125 MISSION PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING: THE FIVE SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING: THE SEVEN ASTRONAUTS PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING: NASA LEADERSHIP PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING: SHUTTLE PROGRAM BOSS PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING: HUBBLE OVERVIEW PLAY
VIDEO: PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING: HUBBLE SCIENCE PLAY

VIDEO: SHUTTLE ARRIVES ATOP PAD 39A PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS EMERGES FROM VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING PLAY
VIDEO: TIME-LAPSE MOVIE OF ATLANTIS' ROLLOUT TO LAUNCH PAD PLAY

VIDEO: ATLANTIS ROLLS FROM HANGAR TO VAB PLAY
VIDEO: ATLANTIS LIFTED INTO PLACE FOR ATTACHMENT PLAY
MORE: STS-125 VIDEO COVERAGE
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