HOUSTON
— Seven NASA astronauts are gearing up to tackle a risky shuttle mission to
repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
Commanded
by veteran astronaut Scott Altman, the STS-125 astronaut crew and NASA's space
shuttle Atlantis are set
to launch on Oct. 10 and soar 350 miles (563 km) above Earth to reach
Hubble, which would leave the crew without the safety net of the International
Space Station to fall back on in case of emergency. But the crew's three
veterans of previous Hubble servicing flight are confident of mission success.
"I
think about how much more we know now about the environment, our inspection
capability, and our repair capability," said Altman, a retired U.S. Navy
captain making his second trip to Hubble, in a briefing here at NASA's Johnson
Space Center. "This is a mission that can and should be flown."
Altman,
a three-time spaceflyer, formerly flew F-14 Tomcats from the U.S. Navy base at
Miramar, but now helms Atlantis' STS-125 flight, NASA's fifth and final shuttle
mission to overhaul
the 18-year-old Hubble observatory. He and his crew will perform five
back-to-back spacewalks during their planned 11-day mission to install new
cameras, replace old batteries, gyroscopes and thermal insulation, make tricky
repairs to two other instruments and attach a docking mechanism for future
spacecraft.
Atlantis
mission specialists John Grunsfeld and Michael Massimino also bring
spacewalking experience with Hubble to the rest of the crew, which includes
shuttle pilot Gregory C. Johnson and mission specialists Andrew Feustel,
Michael Good, and Megan McArthur. Grunsfeld is making his fifth spaceflight —
and third to Hubble — while the flight will be Massimino's second to the
observatory.
Grunsfeld
and Feustel anticipate conducting three of the five spacewalks scheduled over
five days, while Massimino and Good plan to handle the remaining two excursions
to repair Hubble. McArthur will serve as a quarterback of sorts by moving the
spacewalkers about on the shuttle's robotic arm.
"I'm
really excited to be this close to flight," said Tony Ceccaci, lead flight
director for the shuttle mission, during a briefing in Houston. "We're a
month away. The team is ready."
Since
Atlantis must fly to a higher orbit and along a different inclination that the
space station to reach Hubble, its
crew will be unable to seek refuge if their spacecraft's vital heat shield
is damaged. Instead, NASA shuttle commander Dominic Gorie heads another
four-person crew that would launch on Atlantis' sister ship Endeavor as a
last-ditch rescue option, if required. NASA plans to ready Endeavour for launch
atop a second launch pad before Atlantis lift off, but mission managers and
Altman view the scenario as extremely unlikely.
Atlantis
will also carry repair kits to take care of possible damage to its
belly-mounted heat tiles and protective panels lining its wing leading edges.
NASA has kept close watch on heat shield integrity since the tragic 2003 loss
of the shuttle Columbia and its crew.
Such
options become even more important because the STS-125 flight plan takes
Atlantis into a higher-risk area with micrometeorites and orbital debris
from shattered rockets and satellites, mission managers said.
Atlantis
must also rely upon a more extensive inspection with its camera and laser
mounted on a long orbiter boom, instead of the usual visual inspection from the
space station crew. A nine-hour inspection on the second day of flight adds the
unusual step of eyeballing the belly heat tiles that protect the shuttle during
fiery reentry.
The
remote possibility of having to make their way from Atlantis to Endeavour means
that all seven Atlantis crew members are certified spacewalkers.
Both
shuttle crews have spent time practicing their contingency spacewalks if a
rescue mission took effect, but the focus of the Atlantis crew remains on
getting Hubble back into shape.
"If
we ever did get into a rescue situation, it's relatively straightforward
compared to anything we're doing in the Hubble nominal mission," Grunsfeld
said.
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