How did the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis go?
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Monday on a 11-day mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Here are some highlights of the mission: * This is the fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, which was deployed on April 25, 1990. This call is expected to extend its life through at least 2014. * Five spacewalks are scheduled, lasting up to seven hours each, to install new instruments and thermal blankets, repair two existing instruments, replace the telescope’s six positioning gyroscopes, replace six batteries and change out a failed science data processing computer that stores and transmits information to Earth. * Astronauts will install a docking ring so that a future spacecraft, mostly likely robotic, can link up with the observatory and guide it towards a safe re-entry into the ocean at the end of its lifetime. * Astronauts plan to install the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, w
TITUSVILLE — Tears ran down the cheeks of Jackie Townsend, as she watched a decade of her hard work launch into space aboard space shuttle Atlantis. Advertisement Townsend, the instrument manager for Wide Field Camera 3 — the final camera to be installed on the Hubble Space Telescope — and about other 100 Goddard Space Flight Center employees traveled from Maryland to witness the launch from the pier at Space View Park in Titusville. Others from Goddard watched the launch from Kennedy Space Center and other nearby viewing sites. “I am hoping with every fiber of my being for the success of the crew and for the work they have ahead of them,” Townsend said. “I know the ins and outs and intimacies of 1,000 pounds of hardware. That’s my camera. I’m very attached.” Charlie Mars, president of the U.S. Space Walk of Fame Museum, led the scientists and their families to the end of the pier 30 minutes before launch. It was a reunion of sorts for the Hubble workers — bringing together people who
Space shuttle Atlantis and a crew of seven thundered away Monday on one last flight to the Hubble Space Telescope, setting off on a daring repair mission that NASA hopes will lift the celebrated observatory to new scientific heights. Atlantis rose from its seaside pad about 2 p.m. and arced out over the Atlantic, ducking through clouds. The Hubble was directly overhead, 350 miles up. For the first time ever, another shuttle was on a nearby launch pad, primed for a rescue mission if one is needed because of a debris strike. After seven months of delay, the astronauts were anxious to get started on the complicated, riskier-than-usual job at Hubble. They were two weeks away from launching last fall when a critical part on the telescope failed and picture-taking ceased. NASA decided it wanted to take up a spare to replace the broken unit, and it took months to get it ready.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Monday on a 11-day mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Here are some highlights of the mission: * This is the fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, which was deployed on April 25, 1990. This call is expected to extend its life through at least 2014. * Five spacewalks are scheduled, lasting up to seven hours each, to install new instruments and thermal blankets, repair two existing instruments, replace the telescope’s six positioning gyroscopes, replace six batteries and change out a failed science data processing computer that stores and transmits information to Earth. * Astronauts will install a docking ring so that a future spacecraft, mostly likely robotic, can link up with the observatory and guide it towards a safe re-entry into the ocean at the end of its lifetime. * Astronauts plan to install the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, w
TITUSVILLE — Tears ran down the cheeks of Jackie Townsend, as she watched a decade of her hard work launch into space aboard space shuttle Atlantis. Advertisement Townsend, the instrument manager for Wide Field Camera 3 — the final camera to be installed on the Hubble Space Telescope — and about other 100 Goddard Space Flight Center employees traveled from Maryland to witness the launch from the pier at Space View Park in Titusville. Others from Goddard watched the launch from Kennedy Space Center and other nearby viewing sites. “I am hoping with every fiber of my being for the success of the crew and for the work they have ahead of them,” Townsend said. “I know the ins and outs and intimacies of 1,000 pounds of hardware. That’s my camera. I’m very attached.” Charlie Mars, president of the U.S. Space Walk of Fame Museum, led the scientists and their families to the end of the pier 30 minutes before launch. It was a reunion of sorts for the Hubble workers — bringing together people who
