Today in Space: Final "Hug" for Hubble

Monday, May 18, 2009

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Astronauts today are expected to handle the Hubble Space Telescope for the last time.

The crew of space shuttle Atlantis is preparing for the fifth and final spacewalk of the fifth and final mission to service Hubble, which was launched 19 years ago.

Mission specialists John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel will partner for the third time during the 11-day mission, and have the honor of "hugging" Hubble for the last time.

With NASA planning to retire its shuttle fleet next year, crews aren't expected to return to Hubble. But they hope to leave it in its best condition ever for another five to 10 years.

Grunsfeld and Feustel plan to install finish off some top priority mission goals: installing a second set of fresh batteries and a refurbished navigation sensor.

If time allows, they'll partially or fully install protective thermal blankets on two equipment bays.

But managers hope to limit the spacewalk to six hours or less, since three of the first four ran well beyond schedule.

Here's a look at the original schedule for Monday. However, managers were replanning after Sunday's lengthy spacewalk by Mike Massimino and Mike Good - the sixth longest ever at at eight hours and two minutes.

++ 5:31 a.m.: Crew wakes.
++ 6:46 a.m.: Preparations begin for Spacewalk No. 5.
++ 9:16 a.m.: Spacewalk No. 5 begins.
++ 9:46 a.m.: Bay 3 battery removal/replacement begins.
++ 11:06 a.m.: Bay 3 battery "aliveness" test.
++ 11:16 a.m.: Fine Guidance Sensor-2 removal/replacement begins.
++ 12:41 p.m.: Fine Guidance Sensor "aliveness" test.
++ 1:16 p.m.: Bay 5 thermal blanket installation.
++ 2:46 p.m.: Hubble antenna deploy (part one).
++ 3:01 p.m.: Spacewalk No. 5 ends.
++ 5:11 p.m.: Hubble antenna deploy (part two).
++ 5:46 p.m.: Fine Guidance Sensor-2 functional tests.
++ 8:31 p.m.: Crew sleeps.

We'll post an updated schedule when it's available.

Don't miss the last Hubble spacewalk, which you can follow live here on The Flame Trench. Just click on the picture above to launch a NASA TV viewer.

And refresh this page for updates throughout the day.