Endeavour Completes Successful Mission To Service The Optics Of The Hubble Space Telescope

 

 
     
Endeavour Completes Successful Mission To Service The Optics Of The Hubble Space Telescope
 
 

Dec. 2-12, 1993: Astronauts Richard O. Covey and Kenneth D. Bowersox piloted Space Shuttle Endeavour (STS-61) on a highly successful mission to service the optics of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and perform routine maintenance on the orbiting observatory.

Following a precise and flawless rendezvous, grapple, and berthing of the telescope in the cargo bay of the Shuttle, the Endeavour flight crew, in concert with controllers at Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, and Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, completed all eleven planned servicing tasks during five extravehicular activities for full accomplishment of all STS-61 servicing objectives. This included installation of a new Wide Field & Planetary Camera and sets of corrective optics for all the other instruments, as well as replacement of faulty solar arrays, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and electrical components to restore the reliability of the observatory subsystem.
 
Endeavour then provided HST with a reboost into a 321-nautical-mile, nearly circular orbit. Re-deployment of a healthy HST back into orbit using the shuttle robotic arm occurred at 5:26 a.m. EST on December 10th, and the telescope was once again a fully operational, free-flying spacecraft with vastly improved optics. Orbital verification of HST's improved capabilities occurred in early Jan., well ahead of the March schedule. Endeavour, the newest of the orbiters, was named after the eighteenth century vessel captained by British explorer Capt. James Cook. The new Shuttle craft took its maiden voyage in May 1992.
 
 ŠAvStop Online Magazine                                                                                       To Advertise With Us                Contact Us              Return To News