ASTRONAUTS BEGIN FINAL SPACEWALK TO FIX HUBBLE - The space shuttle Atlantis crew began its final spacewalk to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope on Monday morning. If all goes as planned, it will be the last time human hands touch the orbiting telescope, which has provided astronomers distant images that have helped them see further into the origins of the universe. More (Source: CNN - May 18)
SPACEWALKERS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE BATTERY INSTALLATION - We now are 1 hours, 27 minutes into today's spacewalk. Grunsfeld and Feustel have successfully completed the battery installation task. They next will remove and replace one of Hubble's three Fine Guidance Sensors, FGS-2. To remove the old sensor, Grunsfeld and Feustel will work together to unhook nine connectors. Then Grunsfeld will release one latch and install a handle on the equipment that he’ll use to carefully lift the sensor out of the telescope. He’ll carry it to a protective enclosure inside the shuttle’s cargo bay, where Feustel will be waiting to assist him in storing it and removing the new sensor. More (Source: NASA - May 18)
PLAN UPDATE FOR FIFTH SPACEWALK - Our goal is to get the spacewalk done on time, which is scheduled to last 5 hours, 45 minutes. Batteries and the Fine Guidance Sensor tasks are our priorities for tomorrow's spacewalk. We will make a real time call where we are in the timeline after those tasks are complete on the go forward plan for the Bay 5 & 8 New Outer Blanket Layer installation tasks. For the baseline plan, we would do a partial Bay 8 and then go to the other side and do a full Bay 5. More (Source: NASA - May 18)
PREPARATIONS FOR FOURTH SPACEWALK UNDERWAY - Mission specialists Mike Massimino and Mike Good have begun preparations for today’s spacewalk, scheduled to begin at 9:16 a.m. EDT. This is the fourth of five planned spacewalks of the STS-125 mission, and the second of the mission for Massimino and Good. Massimino will wear a spacesuit marked with broken horizontal red stripes. Good’s spacesuit is marked with barber pole red stripes. More (Source: NASA - May 17)
THIRD STS-125 SPACEWALK COMPLETE - The third of five STS-125 spacewalks concluded Saturday at 4:11 p.m. EDT. It lasted 6 hours, 36 minutes. During the endeavor outside the shuttle, Feustel and Grunsfeld removed the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement and installed in its place the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. They also completed the Advanced Camera for Surveys electronic card replacement work. The spacewalkers were ahead of schedule and were able to complete part 2 of the ACS repair, installing a new electronics box and cable. More (Source: NASA - May 17)
ATLANTIS CREW PREPARING FOR THIRD SPACEWALK - The STS-125 crew awoke this morning at 5:31 a.m. EDT to “Hotel Cepollina” performed by Fuzzbox Piranha. The song was played for Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld. Grunsfeld and Mission Specialist Drew Feustel are preparing for the third spacewalk of Atlantis’ mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Today’s spacewalk, slated to begin at 9:16 a.m., will focus on the removal of the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, the installation of the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the repair of the Advanced Camera for Surveys. More (Source: NASA - May 16)
SECOND STS-125 SPACEWALK COMPLETE - The second of five STS-125 spacewalks concluded at 4:45 p.m. EDT. It was 7 hours, 56-minutes, making it the 8th longest spacewalk in history. During the walk outside the shuttle, Massimino and Good removed and replaced three rate sensor units. One of the new upgraded units could not be seated into place. As a result, the spacewalkers installed a refurbished spare unit. The spacewalkers also replaced a new battery module from the telescope's Bay 2. More (Source: NASA - May 16)
STS-125 ASTRONAUTS BEGIN SECOND SPACEWALK - Astronauts Mike Massimino and Michael Good began the second of five STS-125 spacewalks at 8:49 a.m. EDT. Massimino is wearing a spacesuit marked with broken horizontal stripes. He has two previous spacewalks in support of Hubble during STS-109. This is Good's first spacewalk. He is wearing a spacesuit with barber pole red stripes. Massimino and Good will spend the bulk of their spacewalk time replacing three rate sensor units. Each unit is part of a rate gyro assembly, which sense vehicle motion and provide rate data for the telescope. More (Source: NASA - May 15)
SUMMARY POINTS FROM THURSDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING - The shuttle's Thermal Protection System and Reinforced Carbon Carbon are cleared for reentry. We are adding a tile survey tomorrow that should last about 45 minutes. We had a little "pan and tilt" error and missed some tile. There isn't an issue. We just want to look at it. We had an issue on today's spacewalk with a bolt critical to removing the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. We tried using different tools and were eventually able to remove the bolt using a reconfigured ratchet tool. More (Source: NASA - May 15)
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