This story was updated at 5:21 a.m.
EDT.
HOUSTON - After a tough week fixing
up the Hubble Space Telescope, it's time for a break for the seven astronauts
aboard the shuttle Atlantis.
Shuttle commander Scott Altman and
his crew will take some hard-earned time off Wednesday and rest up from their exhausting
service call to give the 19-year-old space telescope another five or 10
years of orbital life.
The astronauts set Hubble free on
Tuesday after a five-day spacewalk
marathon to boost its cosmic vision and revive ailing science instruments.
They are the last humans ever to see Hubble up close and left it more powerful
than ever.
"Looking back at this mission,
it has been an incredible journey for us as well," Altman said as Hubble slowly
sailed away. "I think it has demonstrated the triumph that humans can have when
they overcome challenges that are presented to them."
Altman and his crew are due to
return to Earth on Friday to wrap up their 11-day mission to Hubble, NASA's
fifth and last-ever flight to the iconic space telescope. Today, all they plan
to do is discuss their mission with dignitaries and reporters on Earth, and
then chat with astronauts aboard the International Space Station in a cosmic
phone call.
Hubble reborn
During their mission's five
back-to-back spacewalks, four Atlantis astronauts worked in two-man
teams to install two new instruments, repair two broken ones that were
never built to be fixed in space and replace other vital gear, like gyroscopes
and batteries that were wearing out. Not only did the tireless astronauts overhaul
Hubble, but they pushed through stuck bolts and handrails, flaky foil
insulation and balky gyroscopes to hit all their mission goals.
Hubble's new instruments should push
its vision deeper into space and peer back to a time when the universe was
just 500 million years old. The universe is currently 13.7 billion years old.
Hubble scientists plan to begin calibrating the space telescope next week and
resume science observations by the end of summer.
The astronauts also installed a
docking ring that will allow a robotic spacecraft to latch onto Hubble sometime
in the 2020s and send it down to the Pacific Ocean at its mission's end.
Mission Control roused the crew
early Wednesday with the theme music from the original "Star Trek" television
show. The tune, composed by the late Alexander Courage, was chosen for the
entire crew.
"That was a great wake-up call for
the whole crew," one of the astronauts said this morning. "I'd just like to say
to every one on the great planet Earth, 'Live long and prosper.'"
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 and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed.
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