| Hubble repair scheduled for August |
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| Written by Stephen Withers | |
| Wednesday, 09 January 2008 | |
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These fresh parts should extend Hubble's useful life into 2013. The new instruments are the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (which will be used to probe how the large-scale structure of the universe has evolved) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (to provide exceptionally sharp images with a wide field of view and a wide range of colours). "Hubble is, without exaggeration, a national treasure, and all of NASA is looking forward to seeing it receive this tune up and upgrade," said Alan Stern, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters. "I think Americans are going to be excited when they see the results of this exciting shuttle mission flower into new discoveries about the solar system and the larger universe we live in. And let's face it; it doesn't get much more exciting than sending a team of astronauts and sophisticated high-tech instruments to make the Hubble better than it ever was before." Three of the STS-125 crew have made previous trips to Hubble. Mission commander Scott Altman also led the 2002 Hubble servicing mission, mission specialist John Grunsfeld made five spacewalks to service the telescope in 1999 and 2002, while mission specialist Michael Massimino made two in 2002. "As both an astronaut and an astronomer, the opportunity to go back to Hubble is more than a dream come true," said Grunsfeld, who will be the mission's lead spacewalker. "This mission promises to be quite challenging. NASA has put together the most experienced Hubble crew ever, with three Hubble veterans. The crew and mission team are in full throttle training, looking forward to launch and the hard work of servicing Hubble." Also on board Atlantis will be pilot Gregory Johnson, along with first-trip mission specialists Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur. "Our goal for this mission is to leave Hubble at the apex of its scientific capabilities," said David Leckrone, Hubble senior project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "Our two new instruments, plus the hoped-for repairs of STIS and ACS, will give astronomers a full 'tool box' with which to attack some really profound problems, ranging from the nature of dark matter and dark energy, to the chemical composition of the atmospheres of planets around other stars."
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