Hubble Telescope Records Jupiter Damage

The Hubble Space Telescope, fresh from a major overhaul in May, recorded a very colorful deep red image of the July 19 asteroid impact on our solar system's largest planet, Jupiter.

The Hubble image was taken in high resolution on Thursday (July 23rd) with its Wide Field Camera 3, which was brought up and installed during the May space shuttle Atlantis flight.

Jupiter, now some 360 million miles from earth when the image was taken, was discovered by a lone Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley on July 20th, who took the first images.

According to NASA early this morning, the size of the impacting object was no smaller than 300 yards across when it slammed into the atmosphere of Jupiter's southern hemisphere.

"This is just one example of what Hubble's new, state-of-the-art camera can do, thanks to the STS-125 astronauts and the entire Hubble team," stated Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington on Thursday. Weiler is known around NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the father of Hubble, and he also added, "the best is yet to come."

The impact last week raises fears by most of just how likely an errant asteroid or comet could find its way toward earth.

Atlantis Crew Rests, Holds News Conference

The seven member crew of the shuttle Atlantis will receive some much deserved time off today after eight full days of successfully working to restore and upgrade the Edwin Hubble Space Telescope.

Atlantis' commander Scott Altman, pilot Greg Johnson and mission specialists John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and K. Megan McArthur awoke at 4:01 am EDT, to begin their ninth day in space to the theme from Star Trek in honor of the crew and their astronomical flight.

The crew will devote today to personal time, however they will clean up the crew cabin and at 10:26 am EDT, will begin their in flight crew news conference with reporters. You can watch the conference LIVE right here via SpaceLaunchNews.com.

Ninety minutes later, at 12:06 pm, the crew will make a ship-to-ship call in the vast ocean of space to the three person crew aboard the international space station orbiting 220 miles above earth. Expedition 19 crew members include Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, American astronaut Michael Barratt and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.

Hubble Space Telescope: The Final Images

Atlantis crew took these great images as the Hubble Space Telescope departed the shuttle this morning following five solid days of repair and servicing to extend the telescope's life time by five to ten years.

From it's outpost 350 statue miles above earth, Hubble orbits the earth once every 93 minutes in a orbital inclination of 28.45 degrees to the equator.

This will be the last time human eyes will lay upon the 19 year-old telescope. Look for new pictures from Hubble beginning this August or September as it begins to use it's new wide field camera and upgraded systems.

Hubble Space Telescope Released by Atlantis

The Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope was redeployed back into the vast ocean of space this morning to begin another five-plus years of astronomical photography and observations with a new camera and equipment to allow all of humanity a better view into the universe.

America's space telescope was released by Atlantis' astronaut Megan McArthur at 8:57:20 am EDT, as the pair crossed over the western coast line of Africa at an altitude of 350 miles.

Five minutes later, Hubble had moved to 150 feet away from Atlantis.

Hubble in Hover Position over Atlantis

Atlantis is currently moving to Hubble release attitude as the pair fly 350 miles above earth with the payload bay in the direction of travel.

Hubble deployment remains set for 8:57 am EDT.

Atlantis prepares to Release Hubble Today

The crew of Atlantis will release the Hubble Space Telescope back into the ocean of space this morning following a major overhaul and successful servicing mission to keep the astronomy platform operational through 2014.

Hubble release is planned for 8:57 am EDT.

The seven member crew which includes commander Scott Altman, pilot Greg Johnson and mission specialists John Grunsfeld, Andrew Feustel, Megan McArthur, Mike Massimino and Michael Good awoke this morning at 4:31 am EDT, to the music of Lie in Our Graves performed by the Dave Matthews Band - played especially for McArthur.

Following their morning wake up, the crew went right to work, as McArthur brought the shuttle's 50 foot robotic arm's end effector over to grapple Mr. Hubble's Telescope in preperation for deployment. She grappled the telescope at 6:45 am EDT.

Atlantis HD Images of Today's Spacewalk

John Grunsfeld is shown in these three NASA high def images taken by Atlantis' crew this morning following the start of the fifth and final spacewalk of the STS-125 mission. Beautiful images from 350 miles above earth.

Final Hubble Spacewalk is Historic

Atlantis' astronaut John Grunsfeld has been to the Hubble Space Telescope before.

Grunsfeld, who along with crew mate Andrew Feustel, wrapped up his third spacewalk today in which they completed the jobs neccessary to keep NASA's great observatory in space working another five years.

"This is a really tremendous adventure that we’ve been on, a very challenging mission. Hubble isn’t just a satellite - it’s about humanity’s quest for knowledge," Grunsfeld stated at the close of today's spacewalk.

Grunsfeld knows about Hubble and how it works - he has flown up to Hubble on two previous occasions to service it so that it can keep taking those beautiful images of the far reaches of our solar system and the Milky Way Galaxy.

Today's orbital walk was the 23rd and final in support of Hubble servicing, totaling 166 hours and six minutes. Four of Atlantis' seven astronauts spent 36 hours & 56 minutes combined outside in the payload bay performing such upgrades as a new wide field camera; a fine guidance pointing system; insulating blankets and a circuit board.

As Grunsfeld and Feustel floated outside of the airlock at the conclusion of today's spacewalk, Grunsfeld summed up his thoughts on what Hubble and this flight meant to both him and everyone involved or has ever had an interest in astronomy:

"On this mission, we tried some things that some people said were impossible….We’ve achieved that, and we wish Hubble the very best. It’s really a sign of the great country that we live in that we’re able to do things like this on a marvelous spaceship, like space shuttle Atlantis."

"As Drew and I go into the airlock, I want to wish Hubble its own set of adventures and with the new instruments that we’ve installed that it may unlock further mysteries of the universe."

Today's spacewalk concluded at 3:22 pm EDT.

NASA's final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope was met with big challenges. Challenges which a great crew overcame with the help of ground control in both Houston and Greenbelt, Md. to make this flight of Atlantis a highly successful mission to the stars.

Hubble Spacewalk #4 Concludes

Florida & Cape Canaveral were visible on Saturday.

Atlantis astronauts Mike Massimino and Michael Good have reentered the airlock to close out the fourth spacewalk devoted to restoring and servicing the health of the Hubble Space Telescope's imaging spectrograph.

Delays in removing the 111 screws which hold the protective plate in place over the spectrograph and a trouble some handle on Hubble caused the spacewalk to extend an extra 92 minutes. The delay caused another task to be bumped until tomorrow's fifth spacewalk of the STS-125 mission.

Massimino and Good's second extravehicular activity (EVA) or spacewalk of the mission ended at 5:47 pm EDT, when the pair went from suit power to external power. And, according to Mission Control tonight, today's spacewalk is now the sixth longest in history. A 2001 EVA is listed as the longest.

Today's spacewalk was the 81st from a space shuttle orbiter, and the 22nd in support of servicing the space telescope since the first servicing mission in December 1993. Total Hubble space walking time since that Endeavour mission in 1993 is now 159 hours and 4 minutes.

Following the spectrograph repair, the two began to clean up and stow their tools. It was at athis point around 5:10 pm EDT, that Massimino reported a hole in the palm area of his left white glove. It was reported his suit continued to show a good pressure of 10.2 PSI.

The crew are set to go to bed at 9:30 pm tonight, and will awake eight hours later.

Spectrograph Repairs take up entire Spacewalk

Two spacewalking astronauts ran into delays during the work to replace the imaging spectrograph low voltage circuit board aboard the Hubble Space Telescope causing another task to moved until Monday.

Astronauts Mike Massimino and Michael Good spent about five hours as they struggled with an interfering handle near the panel which houses the circuit board, and the removal of 111 screws which hold the protective panel in place.

Once the cover was finally removed, the pair removed the blown board and replaced it with a new advanced circuit board at 3:59 pm EDT. Minutes later, they installed a new protective cover which uses two clamps to secure it to the housing of Hubble.

At 4:12 pm, Hubble Ground Operations Control in Maryland began an aliveness test with the board, and later discovered it worked great - cheers went up inside and outside Atlantis.

"I think the guys outside have done enough and we're going to be very proud when they come in at the end of this," Atlantis' commander Scott Altman radioed Mission Control late in the spacewalk.

Hubble Spacewalk #4 Begins aboard Atlantis

Spacewalking astronauts are beginning the fourth repair day on aboard Atlantis this morning as Mike Massimino and Michael Good prepare to work on the change out of a circuit board which ran the now dormant Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope.

Spacewalk #4 of the mission began at 9:45 am EDT, about 30 minutes later than planned due to a leak check with the boot of Good's spacesuit.

Extravehicular Activity or EVA 3 astronaut Massimino and EVA 4 Good will spend about 4 1/2 hours of the 6 1/2 hour spacewalk performing the change out the bad computer board on the spectrograph. Later, the pair will install insulation on one of Hubble's bay doors.

You can watch the entire spacewalk LIVE via spacelaunchnews.com.

Hubble's Imaging Spectrograph to get New Life

Hubble and Atlantis over northeastern Africa at 7:25 am

The fourth of five spacewalks to service the Hubble Space Telescope will focus on the repairs of its Imaging Spectrograph which failed in August 2004.

Today's spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 9:16 am EDT, and will be the 81st spacewalk from the space shuttle going back to 1983. Today's orbital walk should last 6 1/2 hours.

Of the Imaging Spectrograph on Hubble, according to Hubble Control in Greenbelt, Md., "its main function is spectroscopy - the separation of light into its component colors or wavelengths to reveal information about the chemical content, temperature and motion of planets, comets, stars, interstellar gas and galaxies".

Astronauts Mike Massimino and Mike Good will use diligence as they replace a low voltage power supply card. A failed power converter on the card is why the Imaging Spectograph went into a safe mode in 2004.

The duo will remove 111 screws on a plate cover to allow access to the spectrograph. They then will take the old card out and click into place the new power supply card. Then the two will use a new cover with two lock-down points which will close up the "cavity" as this replaces the one which took 111 screws to secure.

A very important piece of equipment, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph or STIS, is not responsible for the beautiful Hubble images we see each week. Instead STIS measures the color and wavelengths of an astronomical object to receive a full understanding of its make up. As one Hubble scientist in Greenbelt put it, it "puts the “physics” in astrophysics".

Another task to be performed is the installation of a New Outer Blanket Layer on Bay 8 of the space telescope to provide better insulation to internal instruments. Hubble Control hopes that this weeks repairs will keep the telescope operation through 2014 as it scans the universe from an altitude of 565 km or about 350 miles above earth.

The seven member flight crew led by commander Scott Altman, awoke this morning at 4:31 am EDT, to the song New York State of Mind performed by Billy Joel, and played for Massimino. This will be Massimino and Good's second and final spacewalk of the mission. Thus far, Massimino has 22 hours & 42 minutes of spacewalking time.

Astronauts Complete 8th Longest Spacewalk

The eighth longest spacewalk in orbital flight history wrapped up moments ago by two of shuttle Atlantis astronauts as they continued work to service and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

Atlantis crew members Mike Massimino (right) and Mike Good concluded the 7 hour, 56 minute spacewalk at 4:45 pm EDT today. "Welcome to the wonderful world of working in a vacuum", one crew member announced after the pair departed the airlock of Atlantis at 8:49 am.

The duo removed and installed three rate sensor units on Hubble during the midday hours EDT. The RSU's are comprised of six gyroscopes. One of the new 24 pound RSU's would not fit properly, so a refurbished spare was used instead to complete the job. All three units under went an aliveness test after each were installed by Hubble ground control in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"Hubble again threw us some curves today," Atlantis' commander Scott Altman radioed Mission Control this afternoon.

Massimino and Good also replaced three nickel-hydrogen batteries from bay 2 of HST as the spacecrafts flew 350 miles above earth. It was the second of five planned extra vehicular activities or EVA's - NASA speak for a spacewalk.

Total Hubble spacewalk servicing time since December 1993 is now 144 hours and 26 minutes. Since today's EVA was the 8th longest, it had me recalling the longest. In March 2001, Susan Helms & James Voss performed an 8 hour & 56 minute spacewalk aboard the then- smaller international space station.

Hubble Spacewalk #1 HD Images from Today

SpaceLaunchNews.com and magazine has just received these beautiful HD images from the crew of Atlantis from today's spacewalk #1 to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel replaced the wide field planetary camera #2 with a enhanced #3.

Hubble Upgrade Spacewalk #1 Today

Two of shuttle Atlantis astronauts are about to begin the first of five planned spacewalks this morning in support of upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope and extending the life of NASA's great observatory into 2014 and beyond.

Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel will begin their walk in space at about 8:15 am EDT, as their pair go on internal power & oxygen and depart Atlantis' airlock. The spacewalk, or extra vehicular activity in NASA jargon, is planned to last 6 1/2 hours. This will be the 19th spacewalk in support of Hubble servicing since December 1993.

This will be Grunsfeld's sixth spacewalk in support of Hubble repairs, having visited the telescope on space shuttle flights in 1999 and 2002. He has looged 129 hours & 10 minutes of spacewalking time during the five previous spacewalks.

During the duo's time outside Atlantis, they will replace the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (which was installed in 1993 on STS-61) with a newer Wide Field Camera 3. WFC 3 will, according to Mission Control, "allow Hubble to capture a wide range of images from ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths".

If you have time to watch the spacewalk or EVA on your computer at work or home, watch it right now LIVE via http://spacelaunchnews.com. During this EVA, Grunsfeld will be wearing red stripes on his space suit - or extra mobility unit - and Feustel will have no stripes on his EMU. Grunsfeld's helmet camera will be noted with the number 19 on the screen, and Feustel will have the #20 at the lower bottom on the NASA TV screen.

The seven member crew of Mission STS-125 awoke this morning at 4:31 pm EDT, to the muisc of Cake's Stick Shifts and Safety Belts.

Realtime preBerth Hubble Images

Hubble at 1:52 pm EDT, as the telescope and Atlantis fly over Mexico nearing the tip of Texas.

A beautiful view of the Hubble Space Telescope over the payload bay of Atlantis, attached to the ship's 50-foot robotic arm. Baja California lies parallel withe the robot arm, as Atlantis approaches western Mexico at 1:48 pm EDT.

Atlantis Shakes Hands with Hubble

Flying 350 feet above earth, Mr. Hubble's Space Telescope was captured by shuttle Atlantis' robot arm this afternoon as the crew prepares for five solid days to repair and service NASA's great observatory.

Occurring minutes late due to commanding issues to Hubble from Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, Atlantis' commander Scott Altman slowly guided the orbiter up to Hubble, and astronaut Megan McArthur moved the ship's arm out for the 1:13 pm EDT capture in a fantastic orbital ballet in space.

"Houston, Atlantis. Hubble has arrived on board Atlantis," Altman told Mission Control seconds later. "Nice job, Megan," CAPCOM Dan Burbank told the crew. "It's great to be back with the telescope."

McArthur will berth Hubble and lock it down in a gold covered servicing structure in the rear of Atlantis payload bay.

First View of Hubble by Atlantis

First image of Hubble via Atlantis' cameras at 12:39 pm EDT, as the orbiter fly's 190 feet below the space telescope. Beautiful sight.

It has been seven years since we last saw HST.

New grapple time set for about 1:06 pm EDT.

Atlantis 690 feet Below Hubble

Atlantis and her crew are closing in on the Hubble Space Telescope at a rate of 1.2 feet per second. Range: 690 feet. CDR Scott Altman at the aft flight deck flying Atlantis in slowly.

Grapple planned for 12:54 pm EDT. Watch it LIVE via http:/spacelaunchnews.com.

Atlantis to Grapple Hubble Telescope Today

The crew of space shuttle Atlantis are closing in for the capture of the Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope, and the start of the busiest days of the new STS-125 mission.

The crew of seven - led by commander Scott Altman, pilot Greg Johnson and mission specialists Mike Massimino, John Grunsfeld, Megan McArthur, Mike Good and Andrew Feustel - were awoken this morning at 5:01 am EDT, to the music Upside Down by Jack Johnson, played for robotic arm operator McArthur.

Following a series of burns by Atlantis, the crew will fly Atlantis up from below to meet up and grapple the space telescope at 12:54 pm EDT, with its robot arm controlled by McArthur. The two crafts should be over the island of Madagascar off Africa's east coast at capture. Once captured, McArthur will ease the telescope slowly into a cradle in the aft section of the payload bay.

The gold foiled support service structure has been in space before, dating back to the 1984 STS-41C Solar Max satellite repair mission by Challenger. It was used on previous Hubble servicing flights.

Once NASA's Great Observatory is latched on the service structure, the crew will begin operations to survey the forty-foot tall telescope. The telescope was last "seen" seven years ago by the Columbia STS-109 mission. That flight included thre members of this current crew: Altman, Massimino and Grunsfeld.

Following the Hubble survey, the crew will check out their space suits for tomorrow's first of five planned walks in space to outfit HST with new equipment. Later, the crew is scheduled to go to sleep at 8:31 pm.