Hubble repair passes 'speed bump'
— -- Astronauts narrowly avoided disaster Thursday during their first spacewalk to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, but the more treacherous tasks still await them.
Astronaut Andrew Feustel on Thursday successfully wrenched out a stubborn bolt that, if it had broken off, could have blocked installation of a $132 million camera on Hubble. The camera is one of astronomers' highest priorities for this mission, the fifth and final visit to fix and modernize the Hubble.
Atlantis' astronauts headed out for another spacewalk Friday, this time to give Hubble some new, badly needed gyroscopes and batteries.
Replacing Hubble's gyroscopes is the top priority for this final repair mission to the 19-year-old observatory. The gyroscopes are part of the telescope pointing system, and half of the old ones are broken.
The two spacewalkers —Michael Massimino and Michael Good — ventured out as the shuttle and anchored telescope sailed 350 miles (560 kilometers) above the Atlantic Ocean.
"It is a beautiful day outside," Massimino said. "Anybody home?" he joked.
He had a brief fright when his communication system fouled up. For a minute or two, no one could not hear him. "That was scary," said one of the astronauts inside when the problem cleared up. "A little bit," Massimino replied.
Massimino, a returning Hubble mechanic who is over 6 feet (1.83 meters) tall, was going to squeeze himself into Hubble to replace the six gyroscopes. Despite the tight fit, NASA expected the work to be relatively straightforward; two gyroscopes are bundled together, for a total of three compact, 24-pound (11-kilogram) boxes.
These gyroscopes were installed 10 years ago. Three no longer work, and two others have been acting up. That left one perfect gyro, but it has seen a lot of use.
There will be no weekend off for Feustel and the other six crewmembers of space shuttle Atlantis, which pulled up to the Hubble on Wednesday. In the next few days, they'll undertake work so difficult that NASA is downplaying their chance of success.
