Hubble Repair (STS-125) Mission Thread

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Hubble Space Telescope ground controllers have powered down COSTAR, thus COSTAR is now ready for removal.

Andrew Brown.
 
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Testing

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Meggan has been doing a fabulous job on arm manipulation. Five stars!
 
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MeteorWayne

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Cosmic Origins Spectrograph is latched in place.

Edit, now plugged in ground strapped and alivenss check underway.

Time to pack away COSTAR...thanx for a great 16 years of essential work.

Edit 2 Aliveness test all good at 12:22 PM EDT.
 
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Not done yet, but 4 1/2 of the high priority items have been completed.

1. Replacing Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 with WFPC 3
2. Replacing the partially failed Science Instrument Command and Data Handler (half failed just before the scheduled launch last Oct, delaying this mission till now)
3. Replacing 3 Rate gyro sensor units
4. (1/2) replacing 1 of 2 battery packs (other pack to be done on EVA 5)
5. Replacing COSTARS (the "glasses from the 1993 mission) with a new instrument, The Cosmic Origin Spectrograph.

Lower pririority task completed Installing soft dock capture ring for future safe deorbit of the HST

Now doing the most complicated task, replacing circuit boards in the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which was not designed to be serviced in space. It's a hairy job.

Last 2 EVA's scheduled for tomorrow and Monday:

On FD 7, Massimino and Good will repair and upgrade the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, which
stopped working in 2004 due to power failures, and install a stainless steel blanket on Hubble's exterior. The
blankets provide additional thermal protection for some equipment bays, replacing the existing multi-layer insulation
that has degraded over time.
On FD 8, Grunsfeld and Feustel will replace the final set of batteries for the telescope, replace a sensor needed
for precisely pointing the telescope to gaze at its celestial targets and install another blanket on its exterior.

MW
 
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Great News... good aliveness test on the ACS. It was far and away the most difficult Hubble repair task ever attempted.

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!
 
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MeteorWayne":3e1tkydu said:
Great News... good aliveness test on the ACS. It was far and away the most difficult Hubble repair task ever attempted.

Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!

It certainly is woo hoo indeed Wayne.

IMO the ACS is one of the most important pieces of equipment on Hubble, alongside the new WFPC3.

I've been out most of today & it looks like today has been successful on STS 125.

Andrew Brown.
 
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Possibly even beyond succsesful, but I'll leave that judgement to history :)
 
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MeteorWayne":gqja3j1c said:
Possibly even beyond succsesful, but I'll leave that judgement to history :)

It is great news indeed Wayne, the fact that ACS has powered up is wonderful news, particularly as ACS was never designed to be repaired in space. That was a most difficult EVA & it looks successful.

Great news to come back to.

Drew Feustel removes COSTAR to make way for the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
DrewFeustalremovesCOSTARAtlantisSTS.jpg


John Grunsfeld removes one blown circuit board from ACS, during the apparently successful repair.
JohnGrunsfeldremovesoldcircuitcardf.jpg


Andrew Brown.
 
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Checklist for EVA 4 begins. The Mike and Mike show is live.
The twenty second servicing EVA on Hubble. EVA 4 briefing momentarily on NASA TV
 
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Suitup in work. Master Hubble Tech John G. assisting and documenting with camera.
 
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Hubble rotation in work to present the proper work area for today's EVA.
 
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Testing":21kcniwg said:
EVA suit's on battery, EVA clock starts. Hatch open.

Good afternoon Testing.

Looks like there's problems in removing a handrail to allow access to the STIS.

From Spaceflightnow. Justin Ray.

1559 GMT (11:59 a.m. EDT)
Massimino has retrieved a replacement tool bit from a box down in the payload bay.

1548 GMT (11:48 a.m. EDT)
The spacewalkers are going to get a fresh bit for the power tool to try again in getting this bolt removed. The handrail has to be taken off in order to dig into the STIS instrument.
Three of the handrail's four bolts have been disengaged. But No. 4 is the problem.

1546 GMT (11:46 a.m. EDT)
The bolt head appears to be worn down and stripped now. Efforts to get the bolt removed haven't worked. The ground and crew are debating options.

1531 GMT (11:31 a.m. EDT)
Massimino is fighting with one of the bolts on that handrail that won't release.

1515 GMT (11:15 a.m. EDT)
Now 90 minutes into the spacewalk. The STIS work is expected to take about four hours to complete. The job is much like yesterday's Advanced Camera for Surveys repair, with the spacewalkers opening up an instrument never meant to be repaired in space to remove failed circuit cards and fix the faulty power supplies.

From Spaceflightnow Justin Ray.

BTW did anyone earlier watch Atlantis / HST pass over the Sahara Desert & east Africa? Fantastic stuff. I hope it will be shown again or appear on DVD or stills will be made available.

Andrew Brown.
 
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From Spaceflightnow.com. Justin Ray.

1615 GMT (12:15 p.m. EDT)
Now 2.5 hours into the EVA. The spacewalkers are going to go back into the payload bay to retrieve some more tools. Until this handrail is removed, the astronauts cannot proceed with the work to open the instrument cover plate, get inside STIS to extract the failed circuit card and repair the device.

1604 GMT (12:04 p.m. EDT)
Plan B is to remove other sets of bolts that hold the handrail's posts in place. Originally, the spacewalkers were just going to remove the rail itself and leave the posts in place. But given the bolt problem, the whole thing may have to come off.

1602 GMT (12:02 p.m. EDT)
"It ain't turnin,'" Massimino says.

1559 GMT (11:59 a.m. EDT)
Massimino has retrieved a replacement tool bit from a box down in the payload bay.

From Spaceflightnow. Justin Ray.

Looks like the bolt is still not turning.

Andrew Brown.
 
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Looks like the option of physically bending the handrail to snap the bolt off is being discussed.

Three bolts came out without incident, bolt #4 remains stuck.

Andrew Brown.
 
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From Spaceflightnow.com. Justin Ray.

1705 GMT (1:05 p.m. EDT)
Mission Control says the spacewalkers can now proceed with the normal plan to mount the fastener capture plate onto STIS in preparation to remove over a hundred tiny screws and get into the instrument's electronics.

1700 GMT (1:00 p.m. EDT)
Spacewalker Mike Massimino has manually pulled the handrail to break the bolt and clear this obstruction to proceed with the STIS instrument repair.

1656 GMT (12:56 p.m. EDT)
Massimino is wrapping the handrail bolt holes with tape to keep the objects from floating freely into the telescope when the spacewalker tries to muscle the handrail out of the way.

1643 GMT (12:43 p.m. EDT)
Engineers on the ground have used a training unit to see if the spacewalker could bend the handrail and break the bolt that's still engaged. The ground test showed it could be done with a lot of muscle.

1640 GMT (12:40 p.m. EDT)
Trying to remove a hand rail to clear the way for a long-awaited attempt to fix a failed spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, astronaut Michael Massimino ran into a stubborn fastener and apparently stripped the head during repeated attempts to drive out the recalcitrant screw with a power tool. The bright yellow handrail must be removed to make room for attachment of a custom capture plate needed to safely remove 111 small non-captive screws holding an instrument cover plate in place.

Spaceflightnow.com. Justin Ray.

Handrail has been bent outof the way, bolt #4 snapped. Full access is now possible to STIS, where 111 small screws need to be removed to get inside STIS.

Looks like the EVA is back on track.

Andrew Brown.
 
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Testing

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When all else fails, get it out of the way. Now a dead battery. Press on.
 
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Testing":uqlb5ub6 said:
When all else fails, get it out of the way. Now a dead battery. Press on.

Hi Testing,

It's a damn nuisance that the battery is dead in the Mini Power Tool.

At least they have a spare & can recharge the flat one. Lets hope the spare isn't flat too.

Andrew Brown.
 
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Very true Testing.

This is very well worthwhile & yes it is not easy.

I think though this EVA will be successful, even if it has to be extended following the extra time removing the handrail & replacing the flat Mini Power Tool.

Mike Massimino & Mike Good with fastner capture plate on this EVA.
MikeMassiminoMikeGoodonspacewalkno4.jpg


Andrew Brown.
 
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