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Radar
June 28th, 2008, 09:08 PM
October the 8th is the predicted launch date for the Hubble Repair Mission.

Atlantis has the honours of doing the hard yakka (that's Aussie slang for hard work).

This will be mission STS-125.

As far as NASA TV goes, watching repair work on an instrument that has looked back in time 13 billion light years is going to be a piece of history you won't forget.

A photo competition will be held to see who can get the best shot of Atlantis orbiting alongside Hubble. So start practising your satellite imaging. Competition thread coming soon.


June 27, 2008
Crews at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida continue preparing space shuttle Atlantis for its upcoming STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Telescope.

In high bay 1 of the Orbiter Processing Facility, technicians installed Atlantis' main engines using a pitch-and-yaw system that helped them maneuver the engines into place.

Work to adjust a reinforced carbon-carbon panel on the right wing continues. Technicians will install space shuttle main engine dome heat shields through the weekend and into next week.

Repairs to Launch Pad 39A will begin this weekend. During Discovery's May 31 liftoff, the east wall of the pad's north flame trench suffered damage, when approximately 3,500 bricks tore away from the wall and scattered from the flame trench to the pad perimeter fence.

The pad is expected to be repaired by Atlantis' STS-125 targeted launch date on Oct. 8.

At NASA's Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, STS-125 astronauts are wrapping up a week of spacewalk training as they practice techniques in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory for the replacement of Fine Guidance Sensor-2 and the completion of the refurbishment of the Advanced Camera for Surveys.



http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/213834main_engine-m.jpg

More info will be posted here as it comes to hand.

Tenacious Del
July 1st, 2008, 08:43 AM
how cool. this will be great to watch live.

CanisMajorTom
July 23rd, 2008, 12:39 AM
It would be amazing if Hubble did another ultra deep field, but this time went for much longer.

Tenacious Del
July 26th, 2008, 03:23 PM
It would be amazing if Hubble did another ultra deep field, but this time went for much longer.

when hubble is doing a long exposure, how does it stay on target for the entire time? taking into account that it is moving faster than a bullet.