Columbia's robot arm, upper right, maneuvers Hubble telescope, top, into shuttle's cargo bay (NASA photo)

Astronauts circling Earth aboard the U.S. space shuttle Columbia have successfully linked up with the Hubble Space Telescope, a first step on their week-long mission of renovating and repairing the orbital observatory.

After its "capture" by the shuttle's robotic arm, Hubble was latched to Columbia's cargo bay. The telescope will stay there for the next five days, while the seven astronauts replace its solar panels, upgrade the electrical system, add a new gyroscope and install a more powerful camera to widen Hubble's view of the cosmos.

The zero-gravity rendezvous more than 550 kilometers above Earth took place early Sunday, after NASA officials decided that Columbia's 11-day mission would continue despite a cooling problem aboard the spacecraft.

NASA managers made the decision Saturday, after monitoring freon coolant circulation in one of the shuttle's two cooling systems. They said the flow of liquid in one system was partially blocked, but not likely to get worse. With the other cooling system functioning normally, the officials said they were confident that would be enough to dissipate heat from Columbia's, if that became necessary.

NASA says Columbia's astronauts are not in any danger.

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

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