CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Spacewalking astronauts had to put a refurbished pair of gyroscopes into the Hubble Space Telescope after a brand new set refused to go in Friday, but scientists were satisfied nonetheless and confident the observatory would point precisely to ever more distant objects in the cosmos.
Replacing the gyroscopes was the top priority of the repair mission, and the struggle had NASA on edge for two hours.
Thanks to the spacewalkers’ effort, Hubble ended up with four brand new gyroscopes and two refurbished ones that were original 19-year-old telescope parts, said to be almost as good as the new ones. The telescope also got fresh batteries.
Later, Mission Control told the cheering astronauts the gyroscopes and new batteries all worked properly.
It was the second spacewalk in as many days for the Atlantis astronauts, who once again were bedeviled by problems. On Thursday, another two-man team installed a powerful new camera and a computer data unit after struggling with a stubborn bolt. NASA had hoped for an easier, less stressful spacewalk, but instead had to endure more drama.
As on Thursday, the astronauts got their work done, but it was harder and took longer than expected. Friday’s spacewalk was one of the longest ever, lasting nearly 8 hours, and Mission Control told the weary crew members that they could sleep in and start today’s spacewalk a little late.
Hubble chief scientist David Leckrone said today’s spacewalk, which is one of the most challenging involving never before done in-space repairs of a science instrument, will probably go smoothly because that was his big worry. And nothing has gone quite as expected, he said.
On Friday, Michael Massimino, who was working from inside Hubble, and his partner, Michael Good, had no problem removing all six of Hubble’s 10-year-old gyroscopes. But the last set of new gyroscopes wouldn’t fit properly.
Mission Control instructed the men to go get a spare box of gyroscopes from the shuttle, and put that in. This spare set originally was launched aboard Hubble in 1990 and returned in 1999.
The astronauts successfully installed the refurbished set. By then, however, five hours of the spacewalk had passed and they had yet to start on the other major chore of the day, the battery swap.
The gyroscopes were the No. 1 task, though. Three of the old gyroscopes no longer worked, and two others had been acting up. The other had seen a lot of use.
In all, five spacewalks are planned so that the observatory — beloved by astronomers and many others for its breathtaking views of the universe — is at its apex while living out its remaining years. Scientists expect the upgraded Hubble to look back even further in time, to within 500 million to 600 million years of creation.
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