Hubble grappled for deploy
Saturday, March 9, 2002 at 2:10 a.m. EST

Final preparations to return the Hubble Space Telescope to its orbital perch some 365 miles above Earth are well underway aboard the shuttle Columbia this morning.

The first milestone toward this event came at 2:08 a.m. EST when mission specialist Mike Massimino piloted the 50-foot-long Canadarm to firmly grab hold of the great observatory as it sat on its work table in the rear of the shuttle's cargo bay. A TV monitor acting up on the flight deck was the only distraction reported.

With this initial maneuver complete, the upcoming steps include removing a power umbilical that is connecting Hubble to a source of electricity from Columbia, lifting the telescope from its work table and then, after making sure its batteries are fully charged, releasing Hubble to once again fly on its own.

All of those steps are expected within the next three hours as the deployment of the observatory remains scheduled for 5:04 a.m. EST. Mission managers said Friday that they have a pair of 20-minute windows on consecutive orbits to deploy Hubble today.

Flight engineer Nancy Currie will have the honor of operating the robot arm to release Hubble.

Stay tuned to this page for the latest on the deployment this morning. Our next update will come at 3:45 a.m. EST.

Securely held in place at the end of shuttle Columbia's robot arm, the Hubble Space Telescope is nearly ready to be released to again orbit the planet on its own.

The deployment remains on schedule for 5:04 a.m. EST.

Mission specialist Mike Massimino piloted the shuttle's robot arm to grapple Hubble at 2:08 a.m. EST and then a little later flight engineer Nancy Currie moved Hubble from the cargo bay putting the obeservatory in the correct attitude to deploy.

In between those two milestones other major steps were accomplished without incident, including the retraction of an electrical umbilical that provided Hubble with power from the shuttle, as well as the opening of the three latches that were keeping the telescope locked in place atop a work table in the rear of Columbia's cargo bay.

Ground controllers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., report that Hubble's batteries remain fully charged and they are moments away from opening the door that protects the opening of the telescope. That should clear Hubble for launch in another hour or so.

You are invited to follow the deployment via NASA TV by clicking on our link above. We will also update this page again following confirmation that Hubble has been deployed at 5:04 a.m. EST.

For the fifth time in 12 years the Hubble Space Telescope has been released into Earth orbit from the end of a space shuttle robot arm.

This time it was Columbia flight engineer Nancy Currie who had the honor of squeezing a trigger that caused three rings to rotate, allowing a set of wires to release their vice-grip hold of a pin attached to the observatory. She then slowly and deliberately moved the 50-foot-long arm away from the telescope.

The release came at 5:04 a.m. EST as Columbia and Hubble were 362 miles above the Atlantic Ocean, just east of the Caribbean island of Guadaloupe and moments after the duo was visible in clear skies over the Kennedy Space Center and Florida's Space Coast.

During the next half-hour or so, Columbia commander Scott Altman and pilot Duane Carey will move the shuttle away from Hubble and set their spaceplane up on a flight path that will enable a safe return to Earth in three days.

For Hubble, ground controllers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have a full schedule ahead of them as they return the telescope to science operations, the first of which is expected in about three weeks.

Meanwhile, the next time a shuttle will visit Hubble is planned for December 2004, when the observatory is to receive a new cooling system, a fresh set of batteries and a pair of new science instruments, namely the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Planetary Camera 3.

We will post a wrap-up story on the release a little later this morning and then, unless something very unusual happens, this will be our last update in this space for today as we attempt to enjoy some quality weekend time with the family.

Awakened last night at 9:52 p.m. EST by the Frank Sinatra favorite "Fly Me to the Moon," the STS-109 Columbia crew faced a difficult day of relaxing, staring out the windows, celebrating the success of their mission and performing a few light chores that included talking to their neighbors in space.

Not a bad way to spend what for them was their Sunday in space -- a well-deserved day off.

Following five back-to-back spacewalks and the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope early Saturday, there was very little to do today, a day that originally had been placed in the schedule as contingency time if needed to deal with any problems or spacewalk delays.

Earlier this morning the shuttle crew got on the radio to chat with the crew onboard the International Space Station. Their very different orbits converged in such a way as to allow direct ship-to-ship contact for about 10 minutes.

Looking ahead, within the hour the crew will be interviewed by a trio of news media organizations and then it's little more time off before heading for bed at 12:22 p.m. EST. They'll be awakened eight hours later to begin what is a routine day-before-landing checkout of the shuttle's critical systems.

Right now Columbia remains scheduled for landing early Tuesday at 4:37 a.m. EST at the Kennedy Space Center. The early weather outlook is mostly favorable.

We will be posting a full story about the crew's day and find out what they had to say a little bit later this morning, and then we'll update this space again Monday morning.

Columbia's command crew of Scott Altman, Duane Carey and Nancy Currie spent a good part of their workday this morning checking out the shuttle's steering jets and other critical onboard systems in preparation for landing attempts on Tuesday.

The routine day-before-landing activity went well, with only one secondary steering jet failing the tests. Columbia has 44 such jets in all, so there will be no impact to the landing because of the problem.

Officials are continuing to monitor Columbia's cooling system thanks to the concern earlier in the flight that almost sent the shuttle home a day or two after it reached orbit. Managers say they are watching the system and have a plan in place should a second system begin to have problems as well.

On Tuesday Columbia will have two landing attempts available at the Kennedy Space Center. The first comes at 4:32 a.m EST and the second at 6:13 a.m. EST. A landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California will not be considered for Tuesday as there is generally a favorable weather forecast for Florida.

If the shuttle cannot land in Florida on Tuesday, then NASA will bring home Columbia on Wednesday at either Florida or California, depending on who has the best weather.

We will post our daily story a little later this morning and then our next update to this space will come early this afternoon with more details about the landing. It will be a compelling update you won't want to miss.

Columbia's astronauts continue aiming for an early Tuesday morning homecoming to the Kennedy Space Center.

The weather forecast remains optimistic, with just a chance of offshore rainshowers threatening to move too close to the shuttle runway. This morning at landing time conditions appeared acceptable.

The Hubble servicing crew will begin their official landing timeline at 11:22 p.m. EST tonight as radiators are stowed, seats are installed and the computers are readied for landing. And then about 12:45 a.m. Tuesday the payload bay doors are to be closed, signaling that NASA mission managers are serious about this first landing attempt.

If the weather continues to cooperate then Columbia's orbital maneuvering engines will be fired at 3:22 a.m. EST, setting up a landing at KSC at 4:32 a.m. EST. A second landing attempt would call for the deorbit burn at 5:05 a.m. EST and a touchdown at 6:13 a.m. EST.

NASA will not consider landing in California on Tuesday. Wednesday the weather begins to deteriorate in Florida and remains good in California. Columbia must land somewhere on Earth by Friday.

We will offer updates in this space throughout the night beginning at 12:45 a.m. EST with news of the payload bay doors closing. We hope you'll join us.

Just a few minutes behind schedule, Columbia's crew have closed the shuttle's payload bay doors as they continue working through the timeline for a landing today at Kennedy Space Center.

With those massive radiator-lined doors shut tight, the shuttle is now relying on its Flash Evaporator System to dissipate heat built up by Columbia's electronics and carried away by the two Freon coolant loops. So far no troubles have been reported with the cooling system even though one of the lines is believed to be slightly clogged.

And almost immediately the crew will load the landing software into their primary computers. Then it's into their orange launch and entry suits, final clean up and getting strapped in to their seats for landing.

One issue that was noted but is not a problem for landing is that one of four latches holding a solar array in the cargo bay had shifted slightly. The solar array was removed from the Hubble Space Telescope during a spacewalk last week and placed into a carrier for the ride home.

Weather at the Cape looks good. Some clouds have been seen offshore as expected, but so far they pose no threat to an ontime landing in the pre-dawn hours.

If all continues to go well, the de-orbit burn will come at 3:22 a.m. EST, setting up a landing at 4:32 a.m. EST.

Our next update to this space will come at 3 a.m. EST.

Columbia's seven astronauts have been given a "go" for the deorbit burn, a maneuver that will send the shuttle on a one-way supersonic dive through Earth's atmosphere toward a landing at the Kennedy Space Center.

The good news was radioed up to the crew at 2:57 a.m. EST.

"Thank you for the go for deorbit," said Columbia commander Scott Altman after receiving the word.

The retrofire burn is expected at 3:22 a.m. EST. It will be a four-minute and four-second firing of Columbia's twin orbital maneuvering engines. Once the braking action is concluded the shuttle will be committed to a landing at 4:32 a.m. EST.

Weather over the Cape remains nearly ideal, with the skies full of more stars than clouds.

We will post an update at 3:30 a.m. following the burn.

After spending nearly 11 full days in space, shuttle Columbia's retrorockets have fired and the spaceplane is now heading back to its launch site, committed to a landing at the Kennedy Space Center at 4:32 a.m. EST.

The deorbit burn began on time at 3:22 a.m. EST and lasted four minutes and four seconds, slowing the shuttle by 417 feet per second -- a small nudge but enough to change Columbia's orbit so that its low end falls well within Earth's atmosphere.

About half-way through the hour-long dive Columbia will reach 400,000 feet in altitude, where the first real traces of the atmosphere can be felt and the shuttle will begin to heat up from friction, eventually leaving a long trail of superheated plasma in its wake.

At about 3:16 a.m. CST, Columbia will pass a little more than 100 miles north of Houston and its re-entry can be seen from the ground if weather permits.

We will update this space with confirmation of Columbia's landing after wheels stop, or probably about 4:35 a.m. EST.

NASA's oldest orbiter sits still on the runway at the Kennedy Space Center, having safely returned to Earth with a crew of seven astronauts onboard.

With commander Scott Altman at the controls, Columbia was essentially a cloaked spaceship as it made its final approach to the Shuttle Landing Facility in darkness, suddenly appearing in the floodlights illuminating the end of runway 33 and touching down at 4:32 a.m. EST.

Although unseen by Florida residents, Columbia announced its presence with a pair of sonic booms just a couple of minutes before landing. And earlier it could be seen in the skies flying over Texas trailing a bright plume of hot gas generated by the atmospheric friction of re-entry.

Heat-sensing infrared tracking cameras could also pick the shuttle out of the sky and sent black and white images out on NASA TV.

Wheels stop was unofficially marked at 4:33 a.m. EST.

A convoy of KSC vehicles carrying technicians and engineers is racing to greet Columbia on the runway right now. After making sure the shuttle isn't leaking any toxic gases, the recovery crew will begin servicing Columbia and -- in effect -- begin preparing the spaceplane for its next mission, tentatively set for launch July 11.

And in a dramatic touch to conclude this mission, the Hubble Space Telescope is expected to be visible in the skies over the space center at 5:05 a.m. EST. That's about the same time the crew should be departing Columbia.

Meanwhile, sistership Atlantis is scheduled to be rolled out to its launch pad later this morning as plans continue toward launching the next shuttle mission to the International Space Station on April 4.

We will post a formal landing story within the next few minutes and then we'll offer one more update in this space a little later today.