Monday, May 18, 2009

Last time a human will touch...

the Hubble Space Telescope occurs today on the fifth and final spacewalk of the servicing mission. Today, astronauts will install the Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) and swap out the remaining old batteries for new ones. Lastly, they will attempt to install the New Outer Blanket Layer (NOBL) on two of the equipment bays.

The HST will be released from the grasp of space shuttle Atlantis tomorrow, never to be visited again. Let's hope for an extended healthy life for this amazing instrument.

UPDATE: NASA announces that all tasks related to servicing the HST are now complete. In addition, functionality tests have been passed by all the newly installed and refurbished instruments with the exception of one channel of the STIS (which generates only 5% of data from that instrument.) Sounds like an extraordinarily successful mission.

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