This
story was updated at 1:01 p.m. EDT.
CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Atlantis landed safely in California on Sunday,
bringing home seven triumphant astronauts after their successful service call
on the beloved Hubble Space Telescope.
After two
days of delay due to storms, the third time was the charm for Atlantis as it
touched down on the dry lakebed runway at Edwards Air Force Base at 11:40 a.m.
EDT (1540 GMT) to end a 13-day mission to the 19-year-old
Hubble. Rainy weather thwarted the shuttle's attempts to land in Florida
earlier today and on Friday and Saturday.
"Welcome
home, Atlantis!" radioed Mission Control. "Congratulations on a very successful
mission giving Hubble a new set of eyes that will continue to expand our
knowledge of the universe."
"Thank you,
Houston, it was a thrill from start to finish," Atlantis commander Scott Altman
replied. "We've had a great ride. It took a whole team across the country to
pull it off, our hats off to you all."
Returning
to Earth with Altman were pilot Greg C. Johnson and mission specialists Michael
Good, Megan McArthur, John Grunsfeld, Michael Massimino and Andrew Feustel.
"We're
not leaving an aging telescope, we're leaving a newly refurbished
telescope," Altman said during a Senate subcommittee hearing Thursday,
when - in a first - his crew testified from orbit. "A telescope that is
now at the apex of its capabilities, and will be for a long time to come."
A pressure
glitch in one of Atlantis' auxiliary power units set off an alarm during
landing, but was never an issue, mission managers said.
Fixing
Hubble
Altman and
his crew spent just under a week linked with Hubble, where spacewalking
astronauts installed two new instruments, replaced aging batteries and
gyroscopes, and revived two long-dead instruments that were never designed to
be opened, let alone repaired, in space.
The result:
A
rejuvenated Hubble more powerful than ever before, one that is capable of
peering back to when the universe, now 13.7 billion years old, was just a
nascent 500 million years of age. The space telescope's new instruments and
repaired tools should continue its work to probe the structure of the universe,
black holes and the existence of dark energy.
"This
is a 110 percent successful mission," said Dave Leckrone, Hubble's senior
project scientist, before landing.
"I
hope Hubble does well and has a long life ahead of it, and lots of interesting
science," said Grunsfeld, a self-described "Hubble
hugger" and astrophysicist who made his third trip to Hubble - and
fifth career spaceflight - during the mission.
Grunsfeld
said that humans and Hubble have a storied history together brought to light by
flights like this one and the 1993 flight that fixed the telescope's blurry
vision due to its flawed mirror. The camera and corrective optics that cleared Hubble's
view returned home aboard Atlantis and are destined for the Smithsonian
Institute.
Atlantis'
last mission cost about $1.1 billion to fix Hubble, though nearly $10 billion
has been invested in the telescope since its inception and 1990 launch. NASA
will have to pay an extra $1.8 million to ferry Atlantis back to its hangar
here at the Kennedy Space Center, a process which should take a week and
depends on good weather.
The shuttle
orbited Earth 197 times and flew 5.3 million miles during the trek, which
marked NASA's 126th shuttle flight and the 30th mission for Atlantis. NASA
plans to fly up to eight more shuttle missions to complete construction of the
International Space Station.
Space
telescope success
Atlantis
astronauts were hailed this week by the Senate and U.S. President Barack Obama,
who personally called the shuttle Wednesday to congratulate the crew on the
success at Hubble.
Their work
was all the more poignant, since it was the fifth - and last - flight to repair
and upgrade Hubble before NASA retires its shuttle fleet next year. The shuttle
carried an IMAX 3-D camera to record the flight.
"When
we talk about the Hubble, and giving it essentially a new life, and a new way
of going and seeing the universe, you've touched our hearts and you've also
made history," Sen.
Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who chairs the science appropriations
subcommittee, told the astronauts Thursday. She wished them a happy and safe
landing.
Working in
two-man teams, Atlantis' four-man Hubble repair crew persevered through five
daunting spacewalks, at times struggling through stuck bolts and other
snags which threatened to thwart their attempted fixes.
"Every
single [spacewalk] to me was a nail-biter," Johnson said. "You should
have seen the action out the back window ... I was on the edge of my seat."
During
their spacewalks, Atlantis astronauts installed a powerful new wide-field
camera and a super-sensitive spectrograph for studying cosmic structure. They
also repaired Hubble's main imager – the Advanced Camera for Surveys – and a
versatile spectrograph, which failed in 2007 and 2004, respectively.
The
astronauts also attached a docking collar on Hubble that will allow a future
robotic vehicle to latch on sometime after 2020 and send it plunging into the
Pacific Ocean once its mission ends.
Nearly
never was
Atlantis'
final flight to help Hubble launched on May 11, but almost never was. NASA
initially canceled the flight in 2004 in the wake of the Columbia shuttle
disaster that killed seven astronauts because of its risk. The mission was
resurrected in 2006, but by then NASA had a plan.
Unlike
missions to the International Space Station, where astronauts can take refuge if
their shuttle is damaged, Atlantis had no such safety net. Hubble flies higher
and in a different orbit, putting the safe haven of the station beyond reach of
Atlantis' crew. Hubble also flies 350 miles (563 km) above Earth, where the
levels of space junk and chances of serious damage are higher than at the
220-mile (354-km) high space station.
NASA's
solution: a second space shuttle - Endeavour - which stood ready atop a launch
pad throughout the mission, primed to launch
a rescue flight if needed. The precaution was never needed and NASA
released Endeavour from its rescue ship status on Thursday.
Atlantis
astronauts said there was never a question; fixing Hubble was worth the risk.
"Hubble
really has struck a fundamental cord in human hearts around the world,"
Grunsfeld said. "It's probably the most significant science instrument of
all time in terms of its productivity. Astronomers try to use Hubble to answer fundamental
questions that we've had since the beginning of human history."
Those
astronomers, Hubble managers said, are chomping at the bit to use the
telescope's new instruments. The telescope is expected to resume science
observations in late summer after a rigorous checkout period.
"This
mission was filled with a lot of mixed emotions ranging from significant worry
and anguish to absolute elation," Leckrone said. "So I think I'm
going to need a significant recovery or cooling off period. I'll carry this
away with me for the rest of my life."
SPACE.com
is providing continuous coverage of NASA's last mission to the Hubble Space
Telescope with senior editor Tariq Malik in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and reporter
Clara Moskowitz in New York. Click here for mission
updates and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed.
advertisement
