PREPARATIONS FOR FOURTH SPACEWALK UNDERWAY - Mission specialists Mike Massimino and Mike Good have begun preparations for today’s spacewalk, scheduled to begin at 9:16 a.m. EDT. This is the fourth of five planned spacewalks of the STS-125 mission, and the second of the mission for Massimino and Good. Massimino will wear a spacesuit marked with broken horizontal red stripes. Good’s spacesuit is marked with barber pole red stripes.   More
(Source: NASA - May 17)

THIRD STS-125 SPACEWALK COMPLETE - The third of five STS-125 spacewalks concluded Saturday at 4:11 p.m. EDT. It lasted 6 hours, 36 minutes. During the endeavor outside the shuttle, Feustel and Grunsfeld removed the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement and installed in its place the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. They also completed the Advanced Camera for Surveys electronic card replacement work. The spacewalkers were ahead of schedule and were able to complete part 2 of the ACS repair, installing a new electronics box and cable.   More
(Source: NASA - May 17)

ATLANTIS CREW PREPARING FOR THIRD SPACEWALK - The STS-125 crew awoke this morning at 5:31 a.m. EDT to “Hotel Cepollina” performed by Fuzzbox Piranha. The song was played for Mission Specialist John Grunsfeld. Grunsfeld and Mission Specialist Drew Feustel are preparing for the third spacewalk of Atlantis’ mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Today’s spacewalk, slated to begin at 9:16 a.m., will focus on the removal of the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, the installation of the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the repair of the Advanced Camera for Surveys.    More
(Source: NASA - May 16)

SECOND STS-125 SPACEWALK COMPLETE - The second of five STS-125 spacewalks concluded at 4:45 p.m. EDT. It was 7 hours, 56-minutes, making it the 8th longest spacewalk in history. During the walk outside the shuttle, Massimino and Good removed and replaced three rate sensor units. One of the new upgraded units could not be seated into place. As a result, the spacewalkers installed a refurbished spare unit. The spacewalkers also replaced a new battery module from the telescope's Bay 2.    More
(Source: NASA - May 16)

STS-125 ASTRONAUTS BEGIN SECOND SPACEWALK - Astronauts Mike Massimino and Michael Good began the second of five STS-125 spacewalks at 8:49 a.m. EDT. Massimino is wearing a spacesuit marked with broken horizontal stripes. He has two previous spacewalks in support of Hubble during STS-109. This is Good's first spacewalk. He is wearing a spacesuit with barber pole red stripes. Massimino and Good will spend the bulk of their spacewalk time replacing three rate sensor units. Each unit is part of a rate gyro assembly, which sense vehicle motion and provide rate data for the telescope.    More
(Source: NASA - May 15)

SUMMARY POINTS FROM THURSDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING - The shuttle's Thermal Protection System and Reinforced Carbon Carbon are cleared for reentry. We are adding a tile survey tomorrow that should last about 45 minutes. We had a little "pan and tilt" error and missed some tile. There isn't an issue. We just want to look at it. We had an issue on today's spacewalk with a bolt critical to removing the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. We tried using different tools and were eventually able to remove the bolt using a reconfigured ratchet tool.    More
(Source: NASA - May 15)

FIRST STS-125 SPACEWALK COMPLETE - Mission specialists John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel completed STS-125’s first spacewalk Thursday at 4:12 p.m. EDT. During the 7-hour, 20-minute excursion, the pair removed the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and replaced it with a new wide-field camera. The new camera will allow the telescope to take large-scale, clear and detailed photos over a wide range of colors.    More
(Source: NASA - May 15)

ASTRONAUTS SET TO MAKE FIRST HUBBLE SPACEWALK - STS-125 astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel are set to make the first of five Hubble servicing spacewalks Thursday. Scheduled to begin work at 8:16 a.m. EDT, the astronauts will remove Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and replace it with the new Wide Field Camera 3. They will also replace a failed science data processing computer that delayed the launch from last October and install a mechanism for a spacecraft to capture Hubble for de-orbit at the end of its life.    More
(Source: NASA - May 14)

ATLANTIS CAPTURES HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - The Hubble Space Telescope has been captured by space shuttle Atlantis' robotic arm. Using views from a camera centered in a structure where the telescope will be berthed, McArthur will lower Hubble into a special cradle, called the Flight Support System, or FSS, in Atlantis’ payload bay. The telescope will be latched to the high-tech, lazy Susan-type device for the duration of the servicing work. An umbilical adjacent to the rotating FSS will be remotely connected to provide electrical power from Atlantis to the telescope. Then, Altman will position the shuttle to allow Hubble’s solar arrays to gather energy from the sun to fully charge the telescope’s batteries.    More
(Source: NASA - May 13)

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