Closing the shades

With the telescope fixed to the end of the shuttle's robot arm, Currie took her time mounting the observatory to a work platform at the rear of Columbia's cargo bay.

Roll 'Em Up

The starboard solar array of the Hubble Space Telescope is retracted on March 3, 2002 as seen in these frames captured from NASA TV.

Like a giant Lazy Susan, the platform enables the crew to tilt and rotate the telescope for servicing work. Securing the observatory atop the platform, consequently, was considered a major step in a complex mission, and a trio of latches ultimately snapped shut, locking the telescope down on the work stand.

"Good job," Runco told the crew. "You made it look easy. Keep up the good work."

The observatory's two 10-year-old solar wings then were rolled up like window shades, clearing the way for their removal and replacement -- but not before a couple of momentary glitches.

The starboard wing at first failed to retract when ground controllers beamed up an initial computers command -- something that quickly caught the crew's attention.

"Have we passed the point where you expected to see motion yet?" Altman asked.

"That's affirmative, and we're looking at it," Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean replied from Mission Control.

"Okay. Just be advised that we did not see any initial motion."

NASA faced a similar situation during a 1993 mission primarily aimed at fixing a debilitation flaw in the Hubble's primary mirror. On that flight, one of the telescope's original arrays failed to retract fully during a replacement operation and had to be tossed overboard.

In this case, though, a second computer command nudged the starboard array into motion, and the 40-foot (12-meter) wing rolled up in about eight minutes, or as expected. And two commands also were needed to get the portside array to roll up.

"We've got a winner on both sides," MacLean told the crew.

And that was good news to project managers, who want the astronauts to return both of Hubble's solar wings to Earth so researchers can see how they held up during a decade in space.

With Hubble's rolled-up wings jutting out from either side of the telescope, Columbia's astronauts will turn their attention to a quintet of back-to-back spacewalks.

The first of those excursions is scheduled to begin about 1:27 a.m. EST (0627 GMT) Monday as Grunsfeld and fellow mission specialist Rick Linnehan set out to remove and replace the telescope's starboard solar array.

The portside wing is to be swapped out Tuesday by James Newman and Michael Massimino.

The electrical heart of Hubble -- a crucial but flawed power switching station -- is to be replaced Wednesday, an advanced planetary camera is to be installed Thursday and the astronauts will attempt to revive a dormant infrared science instrument Friday.

If all goes well, the renovated Hubble telescope will be cast back into orbit next Saturday before the shuttle crew heads off on a three-day trip back to Earth. Landing here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center remains scheduled for 4:35 a.m. EST (0935 GMT) March 12.