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Saturday, 09 March, 2002
Hubble
Telescope Back in Orbit
VOA
News
9
Mar 2002
 
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Columbia's
robot arm, upper right, maneuvers Hubble telescope, top, into
shuttle's cargo bay
(NASA photo) |
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The Hubble Space
Telescope is back in orbit after a week of repairs and maintenance by
astronauts from the U.S. space shuttle Columbia.
Engineers from the
U.S. space agency NASA say the astronauts handled Saturday's
deployment perfectly, and that the giant telescope's systems appear to
be working normally.
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| Space
shuttle Columbia crew |
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The astronauts
used a long robot arm to lift the 11,000 kilogram scientific satellite
from the shuttle's cargo bay, where it had been latched into position
for the past week. The robot arm released the telescope when it was in
the proper orbital position, then the shuttle crew fired brief bursts of
their maneuvering rockets to move away.
During five
spacewalks this past week, astronauts installed an experimental
cooling system in Hubble's infrared camera, replaced its power control
unit and installed a larger main camera, giving the telescope a wider
view of the universe.
The U.S. space
agency's Hubble project manager, Preston Burch, says the upgrades have
made Hubble more scientifically capable than ever before.
Initial tests
indicate all the new equipment is working, but Mr. Burch says it will
take technicians two months to calibrate the hardware and take test
images.
The shuttle and
its seven astronauts are scheduled to land in Florida on Tuesday.
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