This
story was updated at 5:22 p.m. EDT.
After
months of delay, NASA's space shuttle Atlantis is just one week away from
launching seven eager astronauts to give the iconic Hubble Space Telescope one
last makeover.
Atlantis is
poised to rocket toward Hubble at 2:01 p.m. EDT (1801 GMT) on May 11 with a mix
of veteran Hubble mechanics and first-time flyers on board. The mission, NASA's
final
repair flight to Hubble, has been delayed since October, when a critical
component on the space telescope failed.
"We used
our time wisely with the slip to try and take ourselves up to another level,"
said Atlantis skipper Scott Altman, who is leading the six-man, one-woman team
to the Hubble observatory. "Now, we're really looking forward to putting
all that practice into work."
Altman and
his crew plan to perform five
back-to-back spacewalks during their 11-day mission to add new instruments,
replace old batteries and gyroscopes and make vital repairs, including some to
equipment that was never designed to be fixed in space. If all goes well, the
work should extend the already 19-year-old Hubble telescope's lifetime through
at least 2014.
To be safe, NASA has primed a second space shuttle - the
Endeavour orbiter - to serve as a rescue ship during the upcoming mission since
Atlantis would be unable to reach the safe haven of the International Space
Station from Hubble if it suffers critical damage.
"That's one
of the things I haven't been worried too much about," Altman said, adding that
he considers the rescue mission as "extremely unlikely."
With just a
week left until launch day, here's look at NASA's last Hubble repair crew:
Back to
Hubble
Leading
Atlantis' charge to Hubble is Altman, a retired U.S. Navy captain making his
fourth spaceflight and second consecutive trip to the orbital space telescope.
His last flight, STS-109 in 2002 aboard Columbia, was NASA's most recent Hubble
servicing mission until now.
Keeping
his crew fresh, especially in the face of months of delay after years of training
for a mission that NASA had initially cancelled because of the risk, has been a
great challenge, Altman has said.
"It has
been a struggle," said Altman, 49, in a recent briefing. "It's made us, I
think, appreciate this mission and the telescope even more."
Altman
hails from the town of Pekin, Ill., and joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1995.
He is an experienced test pilot who flies under call sign is "Scooter" and
joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1995. Altman is married to wife Jill and has
three sons.
The Navy
flyer
Atlantis
pilot Gregory C. Johnson is actually one of two Greg Johnsons in NASA's
astronaut corps, but he goes by the call sign Ray Jay and moonlights as the
Hubble servicing crew's social organizer.
"I guess
I'm the social coordinator for the crew," said Johnson, 54, who is making his
first spaceflight. "We've had a lot of good parties at my house, each one
better than the other...We've had a really good time."
Like
Altman, Johnson is a retired U.S. Navy captain and test pilot with a passion
for flying that led him to join NASA's aircraft division in 1990 and later
shift to the astronaut corps in 1998. He has flown high-performance aircraft
off Navy carriers and icy glaciers, but considers his trek into space as the
pinnacle.
"I tell
people it's the greatest flying job in the universe. It's going to be great,"
Johnson, a Seattle, Wash-native, told SPACE.com.
Johnson is
married to wife Nanette and has five children, including two grown sons.
The Good
One
U.S. Air
Force colonel Michael "Bueno" Good will make his spacewalking debut during the
challenging Hubble overhaul ahead after a nine-year wait to reach space.
"I'm ready,
I'm really ready to go," Good told SPACE.com. "It's been the best job of
my life training to fly in space and we still have the whole flight ahead of
us."
Good, 46,
is from Broadview Heights, Ohio and joined NASA's spaceflying ranks in 2000. An
aerospace engineer and veteran test pilot, he will serve as Mission Specialist
1 and participate in two of the five spacewalks to upgrade Hubble. He's already
been watching Hubble fly overhead from the driveway of his Houston home.
"I watch it go over and think about how cool that is," Good
said. "And then I imagine myself up there hanging on to the handrails of the
Hubble Space Telescope as it's screaming across the sky and it really gets me
excited."
Good is
married to wife Joan and has two sons, ages 23 and 19, and an 11-year-old
daughter.
Plucking
Hubble from space
Without the
deft hand of astronaut Megan McArthur there could be no mission to Hubble.
She's in charge of catching Hubble with Atlantis' robotic arm so the telescope
can be hauled into the shuttle cargo bay for repairs.
"It should
be a simple operation and reaching out and grabbing the telescope," said
McArthur, 37, adding that it should be an exciting event. "It will be my first,
and probably only, time doing a free-flying grapple."
McArthur
holds a doctorate in oceanography and joined NASA's astronaut corps in 2000.
For the Hubble mission she serves as Mission Specialist 2 and flight
engineer during launch and landing, as well as the lead robotic arm operator.
McArthur will make her first spaceflight on the mission.
"It'll be
thrilling for me to see the planet from space...the vastness of the ocean," said
McArthur, who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and grew up in California. "I'm
just excited to take it all in, let it soak in, the beauty of our planet."
McArthur is
married to fellow NASA astronaut Robert Behnken.
The
original Hubble hugger
Astronaut John
Grunsfeld, 50, is no stranger to the Hubble Space Telescope. The
astronomer-turned-astronaut is making his fifth career spaceflight aboard
Atlantis on a mission that marks his third visit to Hubble. He serves as
Mission Specialist 3 and the flight's lead spacewalker, with three excursions
on tap.
"The Hubble
Space Telescope is
more than remarkable," said Grunsfeld, a self-labeled "Hubble hugger," in a
NASA interview. "It has answered just so many of those fundamental questions
that people have been asking about the cosmos since people were able to ask
questions."
Grunsfeld
has aimed for space since his childhood, when he built his own ad hoc spacesuit
out of a vacuum cleaner and ice cream tins. He was born in Chicago, Ill., and
obtained a doctorate in physics before realizing his astronaut dream in 1992.
"I think
that space exploration as abroad activity is the most important things that
humans can do," Grunsfeld said in an interview. "I've always found it
fascinating, interesting, compelling and I have a drive to go out into space."
Grunsfeld
is married to wife Carol and has two young children, a son and a daughter.
Spacewalker on Twitter
Of all the
astronauts bound for Hubble, veteran spaceflyer Michael "Mas" Massimino is the
only one broadcasting his mission training to the world under the moniker
@Astro_Mike on the microblogging Web site Twitter.
"The
whole Twitter experience has been great fun," Massimino, 46, told reporters
last month. "I think as astronauts we look for ways to be able to share what we
do because it's a pretty cool job."
As of
Monday he was: "Enjoying my weekend, last one before
entering quarantine, 8 days to launch."
Like Grunsfeld, Massimino is a veteran spacewalker and
Hubble handyman. He, Grunsfeld and Altman all flew together on the STS-109
mission. Massimino holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and joined
NASA's spaceflying ranks in 1996. He is making his second spaceflight on
Atlantis, where he serves as Mission Specialist 4 and will perform two
spacewalks.
Massimino grew up in Franklin Square, N.Y., and is married
to wife Carole. They have a teenage daughter and son.
Spacewalker's
debut
Rounding out Atlantis' Hubble servicing crew is first-time flyer Andrew Feustel,
who will perform three spacewalks during the mission as Mission Specialist 5.
"It is
action-packed," Feustel, 43, told SPACE.com. "It's going to be busy,
there's no question."
Feustel
grew up in Lake Orion, Mich., and is married to wife Indira and has two sons,
ages 13 and 15. He joined NASA's astronaut ranks in 2000 and is a trained
geophysicist with a doctorate in geological sciences and a specialization in
seismology. In 2006, he spent six days living on the ocean floor in the
undersea laboratory Aquarius as part of NASA's NEEMO 10 mission to test new
spacesuit concepts. But while Feustel does hope to spot the signals of Earth's
plate tectonics from space, his heart is set on walking and working in
weightlessness.
"Doing a
spacewalk is something I've always wanted to do, so I'm really excited about
it," Feustel said. "I want to have a good time and enjoy it while I'm up
there."
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