iTWire - 18-year-old Hubble takes star pix of "pillars of creation"

18-year-old Hubble takes star pix of "pillars of creation"

by William Atkins
Wednesday, 13 August 2008
Page 2 of 2 The Hubble Space Telescope, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), is scheduled to be visited in October 2008 by the STS-125 crew aboard space shuttle Atlantis. As the fifth and final service and repair mission to the Hubble, the crew of Atlantis will bring two new instruments to the telescope, along with a replacement Find Guidance Sensor and six new gyroscopes and batteries. They will also install a new thermal blanket layer to provide additional insulation to the instrument. The servicing of Hubble is expected to allow the Hubble Space Telescope to continue to operate through the year 2013. In addition, a “Soft-Capture mechanism” will be installed on Hubble so that at the end of its operational life, it can be safely deorbited from space by a robotic spacecraft. STS-125 is scheduled to launch on October 8, 2008, and to land back on Earth after completing its mission on October 18. The crewmembers of STS-125 are astronauts: commander Scott D. Altman, pilot Gregory C. Johnson, and mission specialists Michael T. Good, K. Megan McArthur, John M. Grunsfeld, Michael J. Massimino, and Andrew J. Feustel. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to post your comment! Tags See All Tags Astronaut ESA Hubble Space Telescope NASA Science William Atkins Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now << First page < 1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

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