Follow STS-125 crew as they service Hubble

William Atkins
Tuesday, 12 May 2009 18:25

Science - Space

The timeline, as stated in SpaceFlightNow.com, states that, “At present, Atlantis is 8,000 miles behind the Hubble Space Telescope. The shuttle is flying in an elliptical orbit en route to catch the observatory that's orbiting 350 miles high.”

The shuttle is behind and below the Hubble. They are in a faster orbit, which enables them to gradually catch up with the orbiting observatory. Altman and Johnson will be making a series of rendezvous maneuvers that will eventually get them close to Hubble.

Then, a series of proximity operations maneuvers will be performed in preparation for a very close station-keeping position to Hubble.

Many other tidbits of information are contained in the Orlando article.

HUBBLESITE

The Web site “HubbleSite” (“Out of the ordinary … out of the world”) provides a lot of information from NASA about the Hubble Space Telescope, from pictures, history, and news stories, to its discoveries, videos, and even stuff about astronomy and the successor (but not actual replacement) for Hubble: The Webb Space Telescope.

NASA TV

And, of course, you can catch the action on NASA Television (just check your local TV listing) and on NASA TV on the Web.

IMAX 3D

When, the mission is completed, the action is not finished. During the mission, the astronauts will be filming their spacewalks for a three-dimensional IMAX film coming to a local theatre in 2010.

Check out more specifics in the iTWire article "Hubble repair mission to be on IMAX 3-D."