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10/31/06: NASA Approves STS-125 Mission to Service Hubble and Names Crew.
Mission: STS-125 (HST-SM4)
Crew: Mission Commander: Scott D. Altman; Pilot: Gregory C. Johnson; Mission Specialists: John M. Grunsfeld, Michael J. Massimino, Andrew J. Feustel, Michael T. Good, K. Megan McArthur Crew portrait Contingency Shuttle Crew Support Mission: STS-400 (Rescue STS-125) - Endeavour (OV-105) will be ready on Pad 39B if needed; STS-125's orbit excludes use of ISS in emergency.
October 9, 2007: The STS-125 crew portrait. From the left are astronauts Michael J. Massimino, Michael T. Good, both mission specialists; Gregory C. Johnson, pilot; Scott D. Altman, commander; K. Megan McArthur, John M. Grunsfeld and Andrew J. Feustel, all mission specialists. Credit: NASA
Shuttle astronauts will make one final house call to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, as part of a mission to extend and improve the
observatory's capabilities through 2013. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announced plans for a fifth
servicing mission to Hubble on Tuesday, during a meeting with agency
employees at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Goddard is the agency center responsible for managing Hubble.
"We have conducted a detailed analysis of the performance and
procedures necessary to carry out a successful Hubble repair mission
over the course of the last three shuttle missions. What we have
learned has convinced us that we are able to conduct a safe and
effective servicing mission to Hubble," Griffin said. "While there is
an inherent risk in all spaceflight activities, the desire to
preserve a truly international asset like the Hubble Space Telescope
makes doing this mission the right course of action."
The flight is tentatively targeted for launch during the spring to
fall of 2008. Mission planners are working to determine the best
location and vehicle in the manifest to support the needs of Hubble
while minimizing impact to International Space Station assembly. The
planners are investigating the best way to support a launch on need
mission for the Hubble flight. The present option will keep Launch
Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., available for such a
rescue flight should it be necessary.
Griffin also announced the astronauts selected for the mission.
Veteran astronaut Scott D. Altman will command the final space
shuttle mission to Hubble. Navy Reserve Capt. Gregory C. Johnson will
serve as pilot. Mission specialists include veteran spacewalkers John
M. Grunsfeld and Michael J. Massimino and first-time space fliers
Andrew J. Feustel, Michael T. Good and K. Megan McArthur.
Altman, a native of Pekin, Ill., will be making his fourth spaceflight
and his second trip to Hubble. He commanded the STS-109 Hubble
servicing mission in 2002. He served as pilot of STS-90 in 1998 and
STS-106 in 2000. Johnson, a Seattle native and former Navy test pilot
and NASA research pilot, was selected as an astronaut in 1998. He
will be making his first spaceflight.
Chicago native Grunsfeld, an astronomer, will be making his third trip
to Hubble and his fifth spaceflight. He performed five spacewalks to
service the telescope on STS-103 in 1999 and STS-109 in 2002. He also
flew on STS-67 in 1995 and STS-81 in 1997. Massimino, from Franklin
Square, N.Y., will be making his second trip to Hubble and his second
spaceflight. He performed two spacewalks to service the telescope
during the STS-109 mission in 2002.
Feustel, Good, and McArthur were each selected as astronauts in 2000.
Feustel, a native of Lake Orion, Mich., was an exploration
geophysicist in the petroleum industry at the time of his selection
by NASA. Good is from Broadview Heights, Ohio, and is an Air Force
colonel and weapons' systems officer. He graduated from the Air Force
Test Pilot School, having logged more than 2,100 hours in 30
different types of aircraft. McArthur, born in Honolulu, considers
California her home state. An oceanographer and former chief
scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, she has a
doctorate from the University of California-San Diego.
The two new instruments are the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) and
Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The COS is the most sensitive ultraviolet
spectrograph ever flown on Hubble. The instrument will probe the
cosmic web, the large-scale structure of the universe whose form is
determined by the gravity of dark matter and is traced by the spatial
distribution of galaxies and intergalactic gas.
WFC3 is a new camera sensitive across a wide range of wavelengths
(colors), including infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. It will
have a broad inquiry from the planets in our solar system to the
early and distant galaxies beyond Hubble's current reach, to nearby
galaxies with stories to tell about their star formation histories.
Other planned work includes installing a refurbished Fine Guidance
Sensor that replaces one degrading unit of the three already onboard.
The sensors control the telescope's pointing system. An attempt will
also be made to repair the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.
Installed in 1997, it stopped working in 2004. The instrument is used
for high resolution studies in visible and ultraviolet light of both
nearby star systems and distant galaxies, providing information about
the motions and chemical makeup of stars, planetary atmospheres, and
other galaxies.
"Hubble has been rewriting astronomy text books for more than 15
years, and all of us are looking forward to the new chapters that
will be added with future discoveries and insights about our
universe," said Mary Cleave, NASA's associate administrator for the
Science Mission Directorate.
The Hubble servicing mission is an 11-day flight. Following launch,
the shuttle will rendezvous with the telescope on the third day of
the flight. Using the shuttle's mechanical arm, the telescope will be
placed on a work platform in the cargo bay. Five separate space walks
will be needed to accomplish all of the mission objectives.
"The Hubble mission will be an exciting mission for the shuttle team.
The teams have used the experiences gained from Return to Flight and
station assembly to craft a very workable Hubble servicing flight.
The inspection and repair techniques, along with spacewalk planning
from station assembly, were invaluable in showing this mission is
feasible," said Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill
Gerstenmaier. "There are plenty of challenges ahead as the teams do
the detailed planning and figure the best way to provide for a launch
on need capability for the mission. There is no question that this
highly motivated and dedicated flight control team will meet the
challenge."
The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperative project
between NASA and the European Space Agency.
- courtesy of: Dewayne Washington/Susan Hendrix, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md; James Hartsfield/Kyle Herring, Johnson Space Center, Houston, Tx.
NASA announced on Thursday that space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope is targeted to launch May 12, 2009. The final servicing mission to Hubble was delayed in September when a data handling unit on the telescope failed. Since then, engineers have been working to prepare a spare for flight. They [...]
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is back in business with a snapshot of the fascinating galaxy pair Arp 147. The science operations were resumed on 25 October 2008, four weeks after a problem with the science data formatter took the spacecraft into safe mode. Just a couple of days after the orbiting observatory was [...]
NASA managers have announced that they will not meet a February 2009 launch date for the fifth and final shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The decision comes after engineers completed assessments of the work needed to get a second data handling unit for the telescope ready to fly. The unit will replace [...]
NASA updates STS-125 Hubble Servicing Mission 4 and Shuttle Readiness Review briefing times. The time of Thursday's media teleconference to discuss the status of the shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope has changed to 5:30 p.m. EDT. A news conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to discuss the status [...]
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Shuttle program managers have changed the launch date for Space Shuttle Endeavour and the crew of mission STS-126 to the International Space Station, bringing it forward by two days to November 14, 19:55 EST (00:55 UT).
Mission STS-126 is crucial for the development of the International Space Station, as Endeavour is to deliver equipment which will enable the ISS to support a crew of six, instead of the current three. Endeavour will bring Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus to join the crew aboard the station, replacing FE2 Greg Chamitoff, who will return to Earth with STS-126 as a Mission Specialist. - Space and Astronautics News
The STS-125 crew members are continuing to train for their mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, spending two days this week (Thursday and Friday) in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center, Houston. The payload for the mission was loaded into the payload bay of Atlantis on Thursday evening. - Space and Astronautics News
Launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-125 to service the Hubble Space Telescope has been reset, and is now targeted for October 14 at 22:19 EDT (02:19 UT, October 15). Launch of STS-126 has now also been changed: Endeavour's mission to the International Space Station is targeted for launch on November 16, 19:07 EST (00:07 UT, November 17). The STS-125 astronauts have completed a three-day Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test at the Kennedy Space Center, and have now returned to their base at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, where they will continue training for their Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4, the fifth and final Shuttle mission to Hubble. - Space and Astronautics News
The seven astronauts for space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope are at Kennedy Space Center to participate in the STS-125 terminal countdown demonstration test, concluding with a countdown rehearsal on September 24. During the three-day event, the astronauts and ground crews participate in various simulated countdown activities, including equipment familiarization and emergency training for the fifth and final shuttle flight to service the telescope. - NASA
On Sunday, the Atlantis astronauts are set to fly from their home base at Johnson Space Center in Houston to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where they will participate in the STS-125 Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test next week. The training activities and countdown rehearsal will run from Sept. 22 through 24. Johnson Space Center is set to open on Monday, Sept. 22, for the first time since Hurricane Ike hit the area. - NASA
Ahead of mission STS-126 to the International Space Station (and its role in contingency mission STS-400), Space Shuttle Endeavour has rolled over to launch Pad 39B. With Atlantis on Pad 39A, this is the first occasion since July 2001 that a Shuttle has been on each pad simultaneously. - Space and Astronautics News
