The U.S. shuttle Atlantis has successfully captured Wednesday Hubble Telescope during a dangerous maneuver at 600 km altitude to repair and modernize the aircraft, which revolutionized the understanding of the universe.
Astronaut Megan McArthur used the robotic arm of Atlantis to grab the telescope at 17h14 GMT, while the two spacecraft were at 560 km altitude over Australia.
"Hubble has come on board," said the captain of Atlantis, Scott Altman, who had managed to bring the shuttle about a meter telescope of 11 tons and about 13 meters long, the size of a bus.
Difficulties
"I would not say it is not difficult," noted in the morning Tony Ceccacci, the main flight director of NASA for the mission, on this delicate maneuver. "These two vehicles traveling over 27,000 kilometers hour. But this has already been done, and we are confident," he said.
Hubble should be fixed on a rotating platform which will serve as a work area to the seven Atlantis astronauts during five space program. The telescope, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), was placed in orbit on 25 April 1990 by the shuttle Discovery, and has sent more than 750,000 spectacular images of the confines of the cosmos and millions data, opening a new era in astronomy.
Repairs
Atlantis was launched Monday from the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral (Florida) for the fifth and final mission to Hubble, which should prolong its existence for at least five years. The first spacewalk to repair Hubble should begin on Thursday at 12:16 GMT. It will bring together the astronomer John Grunsfeld, 50, who makes his third trip to Hubble and Drew Feustel geologist, 43 years old, a novice in the area.
The mission of 11 days of the shuttle is much more risky that a flight to the International Space Station (ISS), notably because of the increased danger of a collision with a micro-meteorite or space debris in orbit high Hubble. NASA estimates the risk of collision with debris a chance on 221 when the flight against nearly one in 300 for the ISS.
In addition, Atlantis is too far from the ISS to come and moor in the event of a problem, because the telescope is moving at an altitude nearly two times higher than the ISS (350 km). An emergency shuttle, Endeavor, has been exceptionally placed on another the shooting of Kennedy Center, ready to be launched in emergency with a crew of four astronauts for a rescue mission.
Minor damage
A dozen trips to the shuttle to the ISS have been conducted by NASA since the disintegration of the shuttle Columbia in 2003 during his re-entry, but none to Hubble. This tragedy that killed seven astronauts, was due to undetected damage on the heat shield that had occurred at the time of launch.
During an inspection of ten hours Tuesday with cameras on the wings and the underside of the shuttle, astronauts have found a series of notches on the thermal protection tiles on the right wing. The damage was described as "minor" by officials of the mission of NASA, which will however continue their assessments.
Astronaut Megan McArthur used the robotic arm of Atlantis to grab the telescope at 17h14 GMT, while the two spacecraft were at 560 km altitude over Australia.
"Hubble has come on board," said the captain of Atlantis, Scott Altman, who had managed to bring the shuttle about a meter telescope of 11 tons and about 13 meters long, the size of a bus.
Difficulties
"I would not say it is not difficult," noted in the morning Tony Ceccacci, the main flight director of NASA for the mission, on this delicate maneuver. "These two vehicles traveling over 27,000 kilometers hour. But this has already been done, and we are confident," he said.
Hubble should be fixed on a rotating platform which will serve as a work area to the seven Atlantis astronauts during five space program. The telescope, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), was placed in orbit on 25 April 1990 by the shuttle Discovery, and has sent more than 750,000 spectacular images of the confines of the cosmos and millions data, opening a new era in astronomy.
Repairs
Atlantis was launched Monday from the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral (Florida) for the fifth and final mission to Hubble, which should prolong its existence for at least five years. The first spacewalk to repair Hubble should begin on Thursday at 12:16 GMT. It will bring together the astronomer John Grunsfeld, 50, who makes his third trip to Hubble and Drew Feustel geologist, 43 years old, a novice in the area.
The mission of 11 days of the shuttle is much more risky that a flight to the International Space Station (ISS), notably because of the increased danger of a collision with a micro-meteorite or space debris in orbit high Hubble. NASA estimates the risk of collision with debris a chance on 221 when the flight against nearly one in 300 for the ISS.
In addition, Atlantis is too far from the ISS to come and moor in the event of a problem, because the telescope is moving at an altitude nearly two times higher than the ISS (350 km). An emergency shuttle, Endeavor, has been exceptionally placed on another the shooting of Kennedy Center, ready to be launched in emergency with a crew of four astronauts for a rescue mission.
Minor damage
A dozen trips to the shuttle to the ISS have been conducted by NASA since the disintegration of the shuttle Columbia in 2003 during his re-entry, but none to Hubble. This tragedy that killed seven astronauts, was due to undetected damage on the heat shield that had occurred at the time of launch.
During an inspection of ten hours Tuesday with cameras on the wings and the underside of the shuttle, astronauts have found a series of notches on the thermal protection tiles on the right wing. The damage was described as "minor" by officials of the mission of NASA, which will however continue their assessments.
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