Hubble to greet visiting astronauts in May 2009

William Atkins
Friday, 05 December 2008 18:58

Science - Space

NASA announced that the launch date for the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission is May 12, 2009. The STS-125 mission will involve a seven-person crew onboard the space shuttle Atlantis.


On Thursday, December 4, 2008 NASA announced—through its media release “NASA sets target shuttle launch date for Hubble servicing mission”—that “STS-125 is an 11-day flight featuring five spacewalks to extend Hubble's life into the next decade by refurbishing and upgrading the telescope with state-of-the-art science instruments and swapping failed hardware.”

The announcement continues by saying, “Scott Altman will command STS-125, with Gregory C. Johnson serving as pilot. Mission specialists are veteran spacewalkers John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino, and first-time space fliers Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur.” [STS-125 crewmembers and mission details]

This fifth and final servicing and repair mission to Hubble was delayed in September 2008 when a data-handling unit, called the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling System (SIC&DHS, 971 KB pdf file), on the orbiting observatory failed.

NASA is refurbishing a spare unit, which will be taken up on the space shuttle to replace the failed one.

The SIC&DHS coordinates all scientific instrument systems aboard Hubble.

NASA is currently working on nine missions of its space shuttle fleet before its retirement in 2010.

Page two briefly talks about the remaining shuttle missions.