STS-125
From The Space Library
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Organization | NASA-Office of Space Flight (United States) |
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Mission type | Human Crew,Resupply/Refurbishment/Repair |
Launch date | May 11, 2009 |
Launch vehicle | Space Shuttle |
Launch site | Cape Canaveral, United States |
COSPAR ID | 2009-025A |
Inclination | 28.5 degrees |
Experiments | Here |
Alternate Names | 34933 |
Additional Information | Here |
Data Collection | Here |
Payload Mass Up | 10094.24 kg |
Payload Mass Down | 9751.36 kg |
Orbiter | Atlantis |
Lift Off Mass | 2,054,246.82 kg |
Orbiter Weight at Liftoff | 120,075.00 kg |
Orbiter Weight at Landing | 102,745.45 kg |
Landed | 11:39 a.m. EDT, concrete runway 22, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. |
Orbits of Earth | 197 |
Orbital Altitude | 297 nautical miles |
Contents |
Crew
- Commander: Scott D. Altman
- Pilot: Gregory C. Johnson
- Payload Commander:
- Mission Specialist 1: Andrew J. Feustel
- Mission Specialist 2: Michael T. Good
- Mission Specialist 3: John M. Grunsfeld
- Mission Specialist 4: Michael J. Massimino
- Mission Specialist 5: K. Megan McArthur
- Payload Specialist 1:
- Payload Specialist 2:
ISS/Mir Crew Transport
Mission
STS 125 is an American shuttle craft that was launched from Cape Canaveral at 18:01 UT on 11 May 2009 carrying seven astronauts. This is the fifth Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission. Over the course of five spacewalks the astronauts replaced two science instruments, repaired two others, and replaced gyroscopes, star sensors, a science computer, batteries and thermal blankets. The STS 125 mission concluded with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base on 24 May 2009 at 15:39 UT.
EVA
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) conducted by John Grunsfeld, Andrew Feustel, Michael Good, and Michael Massimino during five back-to-back spacewalks for a total of 36 hours, 56 minutes. Megan McArthur used the Canadarm to grapple Hubble, maneuver it onto a flight support system maintenance platform in the shuttle's payload bay, and subsequently to release Hubble when the repairs were complete. EVA 1, 7 hours, 20 minutes; Grunsfeld and Feustel removed Wide-Field and Planetary Camera 2 and replaced it with Wide-Field Camera 3, which will allow Hubble to take extremely clear, detailed photos over a wider range of colors than WFPC2. Feustel struggled to loosen a bolt so he could remove WFPC2. Engineers on the ground theorized the low temperatures in space had altered the grease in the tool used to tighten the bolt during installation in 1993 and that more torque was needed to loosen the bolt than originally specified. The danger lay in shearing off the bolt, which would have made it impossible to remove WFPC2. Grunsfeld and Feustel also replaced the telescope's malfunctioning Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SIC&DH) unit, which formats science data for transmission to Earth. EVA 2, 7 hours, 56 minutes; Good and Massimino replaced all three of Hubble's rate sensing units, each of which con tains two gyroscopes. In addition, they replaced the battery module in Hubble's bay 2. EVA 3, 6 hours, 36 minutes; Grunsfeld and Feustel removed the refrigerator-size Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) installed in 1993 and then installed the new Cosmic Origins Spectro graph (COS). They also repaired the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), one of Hubble's primary cameras, which had stopped working in 2007. The ACS was designed to operate in three modes: a high-resolution channel, a wide-field camera, and a so-called solar blind channel. Tests indicate the high-resolution channel was not restored. EVA 4, 8 hours, 2 minutes; Good and Massimino repaired the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), which had ceased working in 2004, by replacing a power supply board. Massimino encountered a stripped bolt holding a handrail that needed to come off to reach the STIS, then had to unscrew more than 110 small fasteners to reach the STIS and not allow any of the fasteners to float away. EVA 5, 7 hours, 2 minutes; Grunsfeld and Feustel removed a battery module containing three batteries from bay 3 and replaced it with a fresh module. They also removed and replaced Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) 2. In addition, Grunsfeld and Feustel installed New Outer Blanket Layers (NOBL) on three bays on the outside of the telescope. Hubble can go through temperature swings of a few hundred degrees every time it passes between daylight and darkness.
Payload
Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4 to repair and refurbish the orbiting observatory's capabilities
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