This
story was updated at 2:10 p.m. EDT.
HOUSTON -
Two spacewalking astronauts ripped a handrail out of the Hubble Space Telescope
with their own brute strength on Sunday in a last-ditch effort to move it clear
of an old broken instrument they were trying to fix.
It was Plan
C for NASA and not Mission Control's first choice for Atlantis astronauts Michael
Massimino and Michael Good as they worked on the 19-year-old Hubble. The spacewalkers were trying to fix
a spectrograph that was never designed to be
repaired in space. But they had to remove the handrail just to reach their work
site.
The
spacewalkers eventually wrenched the handrail free and can finally reach the
broken spectrograph at the heart of today's repair. But then a power tool failed,
sending them scrambling for a spare.
"Oh, for
Pete's sake!" Massimino exclaimed. The spacewalk was expected to run 6 1/2
hours, and will likely be extended by hours.
Brute
strength in space
After two
separate attempts to unscrew the bolt out with different custom-made
tools - Plans A and B - Mission Control finally gave Massimino the go ahead
to just rip the handrail off, while taking care not to lose any of the broken
pieces. The handrail was attached to a cover plate with four bolts, three of which
were easily removed. It was the last bolt that stuck fast, apparently because
it was stripped.
"Make sure
you're ready," said astronaut Andrew Feustel, who was coaching the spacewalkers
from inside Atlantis.
Mission
Control warned the astronauts that it would take some serious strength to bend
the handrail and shear off the stuck bolt. Massimino braced himself, then let
loose. Mission Control was essentially blind as Atlantis passed out of live
video range.
"Easy Mike,
just real easy," Good said.
"There we
go! I think I got it," Massimino said. "I don't think we even scattered any
debris."
The
astronauts and Mission Control cheered.
"Awesome
job," Mission Control radioed the astronauts. "We're back in with the regular
scheduled program...wonderful."
But
first, Massimino asked for a well-deserved break.
"I don't
know how to describe what just happened, but after what just happened I think
we all need a minute to straighten things out," he said. Mission Control
agreed.
It was after they
removed the handrail that a vital miniature power tool failed. An exasperated Massimino
had to go grab a spare. He
later asked how things were going inside Atlantis.
"It's a
real nail-biter, buddy," said astronaut Andrew Feustel, who was coaching the
spacewalkers from inside Atlantis.
Fixing
Hubble's spectrograph
With the
handrail clear and the spare power tool, Massimino and Good will finally be
press ahead with today's planned
repair of Hubble's broken Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, a versatile
instrument that can detect supermassive black holes and the chemical makeup of
the atmosphere around distant alien planets.
The
spacewalk is the fourth of five challenging spacewalks of Atlantis' mission to overhaul
Hubble for the fifth and final time. After the last spacewalk on Monday,
there will be no more chances to fix the iconic space telescope since NASA is
retiring its space shuttle fleet next year.
The
spectrograph is designed to split light into individual wavelengths in order to
study objects in space, but it an also be used as a camera. That dual purpose
makes it unique among Hubble's instruments. It was installed in 1997 and
suffered a power failure in 2004.
"It has
many bells and whistles," Hubble's senior project scientist Dave Leckrone told
reporters here at NASA's Johnson Space Center on Saturday.
Massimino
and Good must remove 117 small screws from an access cover – now that the
handrail is removed – and then pluck out a broken power supply circuit board.
They will replace it with a new one, and then install a new cover plate. It is
the second major repair of their mission. On Saturday, spacewalkers fixed Hubble's
main camera.
Sunday's
spacewalk began at 9:45 a.m. EDT (1345 GMT) as Atlantis and the attached Hubble
flew 350 miles (563 km) above central Australia.
SPACE.com
is providing continuous coverage of NASA's last mission to the Hubble Space
Telescope with senior editor Tariq Malik in Houston and reporter Clara
Moskowitz in New York. Click
here for mission updates, live spacewalk coverage and SPACE.com's
live NASA TV video feed.
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