Hubble Payload Work Still On Schedule

Work continues at Kennedy Space Center to prepare cargo that astronauts will use to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, and hopefully extend its life at least another five years.

The tight payload schedule was the reason NASA recently pushed back the launch of Atlantis from Oct. 8 to Oct. 10, and Hubble officials today said they expect to make that date even though they have no room left for delays.

"I believe we're OK, but we can't miss a step," said Hubble Program Manager Frank Cepollina of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "It's an every day, make your milestone type of deal."

Cepollina and other managers today showed media representatives the 11-day mission's cargo, which is in its final processing stages inside a nearly 10-story processing facility at the spaceport.

The cargo includes a state-of-the-art new camera and spectrograph that will help scientists explore the origins of the universe and its components, such as "dark matter."

Atlantis will also carry new batteries, gyroscopes, guidance sensors and thermal blankets, plus equipment for what may be the most complex repairs ever done in space, of two broken science instruments.

"It is clearly a giant leap for us to be able to work in space, in a vacuum, and do this kind of delicate work," said Cepollina.

He likened planned repairs to the observatory's Advanced Camera for Surveys to heart and brain transplants for the instrument, completed within seven hours.

In the processing building, workers wearing cleanroom "bunny" suits stowed and wrapped the mission's tools and instruments in four huge carriers that together will be the heaviest load taken to the telescope.

The highly sensitive optical and electronic gear is expected to improve Hubble's overall performance by 10 to 70 times.

Even tiny dust particles could leave a film on telescope parts equivalent to a dirty windshield, engineers said.

All the equipment will be fully wrapped, then placed in a giant canister. It is expected to be installed installed in Atlantis at the launch pad starting late Sept. 18 or early Sept. 19.

IMAGE NOTE: Click on the image above to enlarge it. Technicians make final preparations on Hubble components for a media display in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The components comprise the payload for space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. They include the Soft Capture Mechanism, Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, Wide Field Camera 3 and Fine Guidance Sensor, mounted on several carriers. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder