May 16 2009
From The Space Library
In the third spacewalk at HST, John M. Grunsfeld and Andrew J. Feustel carried out a set of unprecedented tasks—no astronaut had ever tried to take apart any of HST’s scientific instruments in space. The work proceeded smoothly, unlike the two previous spacewalks, and the astronauts completed all tasks within the allotted 6.5 hours. Grunsfeld and Feustel successfully connected the US$88 million Cosmic Origins spectrograph, a task that required them to remove the corrective lenses that had restored HST’s vision in 1993. The newer scientific instruments had built-in corrective lenses, rendering the 1993 lenses unnecessary. Grunsfeld then fixed the ACS using a set of specially designed tools. Working from a dark work site at an odd angle and wearing stiff, heavily padded space gloves, Grunsfeld cut off a grate and removed 36 tiny fasteners and four circuit boards. The new cards and the power supply pack slid smoothly into place.
Marcia Dunn, “Spacewalkers Pull Off Toughest Hubble Repairs Yet,” Agence France-Presse, 17 May 2009; Traci Watson, “Spacewalkers Easily Pull Off Tricky Hubble Fix,” USA Today, 17 May 2009.
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