CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Shuttle Columbia's astronauts headed into the home stretch of their Hubble Space Telescope repair mission Sunday, taking time out to chat with the orbiting crew of the International Space Station.
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Flying 360 miles (576 kilometers) above the west coast of Africa, shuttle skipper Scott Altman placed a ship-to-ship radio call at 3:15 a.m. EST (0815 GMT) as the international station crossed over the South Pacific Ocean.
At the time, 8,395 miles (13,432 kilometers) separated the craft. And since they were circling Earth in an orbit just 240 miles (360 kilometers) above Earth, the station crewmates were interested in hearing about the view from on high.
"We just had an incredible pass at night over the U.S., and it was so clear we could see from Miami to Boston. We saw Chicago. We could see well past Houston," Columbia mission specialist Nancy Currie told the station crew. "We just could not believe the incredibly awesome view. Up here you really get a lot of curvature of the Earth and it is just incredible.Added Altman: "We're all smiling down at you guys."
Launched March 1, the six-man, one-woman Columbia crew sprinted through a hectic week servicing the Hubble telescope and then redeployed the observatory Saturday.
Amid five challenging spacewalks, the shuttle astronauts equipped the telescope with a fresh set of solar wings, a new power switching station and a replacement for a faulty pointing control device.
What's more, the astronauts outfitted Hubble with the most powerful planetary camera ever launched into orbit, and they rigged up a high-tech cooling system in a bid to resuscitate the telescope's dormant infrared instrument.
"We had a very ambitious mission in front of us, and I admit that I had my doubts whether we could safely accomplish everything we had on our plate," shuttle pilot Duane Carey said in an interview with a Minnesota television station.
"But we sent our thoroughbreds out the door and they did a heck of a job out there on the telescope. It makes me feel proud to be a human being."
The shuttle crew kicked back Sunday, taking what amounted to a full day off in space. The astronauts chatted with friends and family members, did a round of media interviews and kept an eye on the weather back on Earth.
"It looked like there were some pretty big storms that went through the U.S. (Saturday). I don't know if you guys got a chance to see them at night," station flight engineer Dan Bursch said.
"Yeah, we're hoping that that weather system is tracking up to the north and out of the way. We saw some of those thunder-bumpers kicking off. It really is quite a show at night," Altman said. "But right now, I'd be happy if the weather stays nice and clear for the next couple of days so we can get back and talk to you from the ground next."
Columbia and its crew will test the shuttle's flight control and landing systems Monday before packing up the ship for a landing at about 4:30 a.m. EST (0930 GMT) Tuesday.
The early forecast calls for favorable weather here at Kennedy Space Center.
Bursch and his station crewmates - Russian commander Yuri Onufrienko and fellow U.S. flight engineer Carl Walz - are due back on Earth in mid-May after a five-and-a-half-month tour of duty aboard the space station.
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