Listen, Watch Live: Hubble Faces Delay

NASA officials are expected to announce an indefinite delay in the agency's fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission today, and shuttle Atlantis likely will be destacked as a result.

The mobile launcher platform Atlantis now is perched upon then could be handed over to NASA's Project Constellation in February so modifications for the Ares 1-X test flight could be made -- a move that could make a July 12 target launch date viable.

Shuttle Discovery will be attached to the external tank-solid rocket booster set now on the Atlantis mobile launcher platform and then launched on an International Space Station assembly mission. The Ares 1-X test rocket then will be assembled on the freed-up mobile launcher platform.

Astronauts on the Discovery mission would deliver and erect the fourth and final set of American solar wings at the station.

Additional power generated by the massive arrays will set the stage for staffing the station with crews of six rather than three -- a key milestone in a decade-long effort to raise the international laboratory.

The Hubble telescope, meanwhile, is back in operation after a month-long shutdown of science observations. NASA today released a beautiful image (see above) of two galaxies that lie in the constellation Cetus. More than 400 million light-years away from Earth, the galaxies appear to form the numeral 10.

The resumption of science operations will be discussed during a media teleconference with Hubble project officials, who have been struggling to prepare a spare Science Instrument Control and Data Handling Unit for a targeted launch slot in February.

The critical spare must be fully certified for flight and shipped to the Kennedy Space Center in January to make the February target.

The next opportunity would come in May, but it's unclear exactly when qualification testing to the unit will be complete.

The media teleconference is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. EDT, but could get a late start. You can listen live by clicking here: LISTEN LIVE. A link to live streaming audio will appear just before the event starts.

It will be followed by a live NASA news conference during which officials are expected to firm up Nov. 14 as the launch date for Endeavour and seven astronauts on an International Space Station outfitting mission. You can watch the 6:30 p.m. EDT briefing by clicking the NASA TV box on the righthand side of this page. That will launch our NASA TV viewer and live coverage of the event.

During the news briefing, NASA officials also are expected to discuss the situation with the Hubble Space Telescope and discuss plans to disassemble shuttle Atlantis.

The destacking operation would be required because the shuttle's solid rocket boosters will have been stacked too long and orbiter tire pressure will decay by the time the Hubble mission can be launched.

It also would allow NASA to turn over the shuttle's mobile launcher platform to Project Constellation so the requisite modifications can be made in support of a targeted Ares 1-X test flight on July 12.

Atlantis then would be reassembled atop one of NASA's two other mobile launcher platforms.

NASA and seven astronauts were ready to launch the last Hubble servicing mission on Oct. 14 but those plans were dashed when the telescope's prime instrument control unit and science data formatter failed on Sept. 27, prompting an automatic shutdown in science operations.

NASA decided to delay the flight until a spare Science Instrument Control and Data Handling Unit can be certified for flight. The instrument control and science data formatter are subsystems on a tray of electronics devices that include a critical payload computer.

You can read all about the system in section 5.5 of this NASA primer: HSTSYSTEMS.pdf

ABOUT THE IMAGES: Click to enlarge and save the awesome images. The first is a Hubble image of two galaxies 400 million light years from Earth. It was taken Oct. 27 by the telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and officials say it shows the observatory is working properly after a month-long scientific shutdown. The second and third are images of the telescope taken by the crew of STS-103, the third Hubble servicing mission in December 1999.