NASA has announced the Hubble Telescope servicing mission has been rescheduled for May 12. Yaa. The grand dame has pushed back the mysteries of the cosmos since 1990. HST, (Hubble Space Telescope) was supposed to get it’s 3rd and final repair and upgrade last month from the shuttle Endeavor, but a hardware failure on Hubble caused the postponement of the flight.
Bit O’ History – Hubble was not really designed to be repaired in space, but right after it came online the photos were blurry. The lens manufacturer, Perkin Elmer, overground the reflecting surface making the images in focus in the center point, but blurry extending outward. After a billion dollars on the manufacture, you can imagine the disappointment. However, engineers in Tucson built corrective optics to correct the main lens distortion. Thus the first servicing mission and the universe opened like never before. Astronomers were astounded at the amount of new information and science. The cosmos was far more vast with other galaxies discovered by the millions.
The second mission replaced worn hardware, like gyroscopes, cooling devices and greater capability to see beyond visible light. This was expensive, but relatively easy decision for NASA because the realization that no other instument was producing large amounts of discovery like Hubble.
When hardware started slowly degrading a few years back, one of the cameras hasn’t operated in years, HST was put on the chopping block to make way for a newer, bigger, better telescope – The James Webb Telescope. However, no other scientific instrument was more famous, produced more science and created more awe in the scientific community than Hubble. The Webb telescope is also way behind schedule. NASA then began to consider repairing and updating HST one last time. THEN Columbia. The loss of the shuttle Columbia finally killed the Hubble project. The telescope would be used until it no longer functioned and then dropped into the Pacific Ocean. Since the new NASA requirements stated that astronauts had to be able to be rescued, shuttle missions are now limited to the space station. Hubble is in an entirely different orbit than that of the ISS, (International Space Station) and so wasn’t capable of being serviced.
NASA was finally convinced that Hubble needed to be repaired not only by the scientists, but by private citizens interested astronomy, like me, that a 3rd and final upgrade and repair was worth the risk and money. The retirement of the shuttle fleet was extended 1 additional launch. You may not have known, but with the shuttle Endeavor on launch pad 39A in November, another shuttle was being readied on pad 39B as the rescue backup in case something happened during Endeavors flight. Then the unexpected hardware failure on Hubble. The hardware that failed has a backup on the HST, which is functioning normally allowing time to prepare an addition to the servicing mission of replacing the control board that failed. So barring any additional setbacks, the Hubble Space Telescope will be visited one last time in May, producing new science with cutting edge upgrades for many years to come.
This may seem like ordinary news to you, but it makes me almost giddy. Please visit the Hubble website at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html. If you have any questions about the pictures, science or technology, just give me holler.
bob