After roadbump, astronauts continue with tricky fix
— -- Astronauts on a spacewalk Sunday had to take the risky and unscripted step of ripping a handrail off the Hubble Space Telescope during a difficult repair of the famed observatory.
With one giant pull, astronaut Michael Massimino yanked free a handrail that blocked access to the workings of a key scientific instrument that broke in 2004.
The handrail was supposed to slip off easily after Massimino unscrewed the four bolts holding it onto the telescope, but one of the bolts jammed. That forced Massimino to apply brute force.
Mission Control estimated beforehand that he'd need to apply 60 pounds to the handrail to get it off. The burly Massimino, who stands more than 6 feet tall, obliged.
"Awesome job," astronaut Dan Burbank told Massimino from Mission Control. "Wonderful."
Before Massimino began pulling, Burbank warned that when the handrail came loose, it could blast debris straight at Massimino and his delicate spacesuit. Massimino wanted to proceed anyway.
Massimino and his spacewalking partner Michael Good were trying to reach inside the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, which studies objects such as black holes and the atmosphere of planets circling other stars. Its power system has been defunct for nearly five years, and scientists badly want to see it fixed.
The instrument was never designed to be repaired in orbit, so its designers made it hard to open. Before his spacewalk, Massimino's biggest worry had been the 111 tiny screws he'd have to undo to open the instrument, but the problem with the handrail popped up even before he could start working on the screws.
Massimino, Good and five other astronauts blasted into space on space shuttle Atlantis Monday to pay the fifth and final call on the Hubble. Because they'll be the Hubble's last visitors, it's up to them to leave the telescope in good enough shape to last an additional five to 10 years.
This is the fourth spacewalk for shuttle Atlantis' crew. One more is scheduled before it's time to set Hubble free.
