Astronauts Visit Hubble in Repair Mission

In orbit 350 miles above Earth, astronauts from the shuttle Atlantis continue a series of ambitious and dangerous space walks in which they will replace, and in some cases repair, many of the Hubble Space Telescope's scientific instruments.

May 18

Astronaut John Grunsfeld holds onto the shuttle's robotic arm while working on repairs to the Hubble telescope during a spacewalk. This is the fifth and final repair mission to the 19-year-old telescope.

May 18

Astronaut Grunsfeld removes a component from Hubble, as he and his partner Andrew Feustel begin to install fresh batteries, thermal shields and a sensor to pinpoint celestial targets for research.

NASA TV-Reuters

May 18

Astronauts Andrew Feustel, left, and Grunsfeld work to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope during their final spacewalk.

May 18

Astronaut John Grunsfeld, right, holds a camera as he takes a photo of partner Andrew Feustel working on Hubble.

May 18

Astronaut Grunsfeld installs a thermal blanket cover on the exterior of of the Hubble telescope. The astronauts completed repairs to telescope, leaving it more powerful than ever and able to peer even deeper into the cosmos -- almost to the brink of creation.

NASA TV-Reuters

May 17

Astronaut Michael Good, on the shuttle's robotic arm, works with Mike Massimino, right, on repairs and upgrades to the Hubble Space Telescope. Massimino and Good will spend the bulk of their spacewalk time repairing Hubble's Imaging Spectrograph, a task that has been compared to brain surgery.

Nasa Tv-Reuters

May 16

Astronaut Andrew Feustel, on the shuttle's robotic arm, moves the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, or COSTAR, to a temporary storage location in the payload bay of Atlantis as fellow spacewalker John Grunsfeld works inside the Hubble Space Telescope.

Nasa Tv-Reuters

May 16

Astronaut Andrew Feustel opens the hatch to the Hubble Space Telescope. The spacewalkers are focused on the installation of the telescope's new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph which will replace COSTAR inside the telescope.

May 15

Astronaut Michael T. Good works in the payload bay of the shuttle Atlantis. Good and fellow astronaut Michael J. Massimino will replace gyroscopes on the Hubble Space Telescope during their planned six-hour spacewalk.

NASA TV-Reuters

Astronaut Good gathers equipment in Atlantis's payload bay during a spacewalk.

NASA TV-Reuters

May 15

Astronauts Mike Good, left, and Mike Massimino work to upgrade the Hubble telescope.

May 11

Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Atlantis and seven astronauts blasted off on Monday on an ambitious 11-day mission to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope, an icon of modern astronomy that has changed scientists' understanding of the universe.

Scott Audette-Reuters

May 11

Space shuttle Atlantis, left, lifts off as the shuttle Endeavour stands at right, ready for a rescue mission if needed, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Atlantis is loaded with 180 tools; 116 were designed for the 11-day mission.

Joe Skipper-Reuters

May 11

Atlantis lifts off on a mission to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope from it's launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The remainder of the shuttle flights will be to the international space station, with the final mission scheduled for late 2010.

Larry Rubenstein-Reuters

May 12

The space shuttle Atlantis is silhouetted as it crosses in front of the sun in this image made from a ground telescope.

Thierry Legault, NASA-AP

May 13

The Hubble Space Telescope attached to the space shuttle Atlantis' robot arm with Earth in the background. The STS-125 crew will perform five spacewalks as they work to refurbish, restore and renew the space telescope.

NASA TV-Reuters

May 14

In this image from NASA TV, astronauts John Grunsfeld, left, and Drew Feustel leave the shuttle Atlantis airlock to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope during a spacewalk. Grunsfeld and Feustel began their space walk at 8:52 a.m., with Feustel exulting "Too cool!" as he came out of the shuttle's airlock.

May 14

Spacewalker Drew Feustel gets his bearings for his first spacewalk after exiting the airlock in Atlantis's payload bay, in this image from NASA TV. Feustel and John Grunsfeld will replace a camera that allows large-scale, clear and detailed photos to be taken, and a computer system that formats science data for researchers on the ground. The component replacements will keep the telescope functioning into at least 2014.

NASA TV-Reuters

May 14

John Grunsfeld, left, makes his way around the Hubble Space Telescope as Drew Feustel, right, attached to the robot arm, moves the Wide Field Planetary Camera into Atlantis's payload bay. They are replacing an old Hubble camera that's the size of a baby grand piano, and a science data-handling unit that failed in September and delayed Atlantis' flight by seven months.

NASA TV-Reuters

May 14

Astronaut John Grunsfeld, left, gives a tool to colleague Drew Feustel during the first space walk to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble was dreamed up in the 1970s at the same time as the space shuttle program. No other space telescope gets serviced by astronauts.

AFP/Getty Images

May 14

John Grunsfeld replaces the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, a 16-year-old workhorse imager, with the updated Wide Field Camera 3. The old camera, which took many of the Hubble's most famous images, will be brought back to Earth and sent to the Smithsonian.

AFP/Getty Images

May 14

Drew Feustel and John Grunsfeld, left, replace the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. NASA hopes to get another five to 10 years of dazzling views of the cosmos with all the planned upgrades.

AFP/Getty Images

May 14

John Grunsfeld, left, prepares the old Wide Field Planetary Camera for storage in Atlantis's payload bay as Drew Feustel, attached to the robot arm, looks on. Working 350 miles above the Earth, Feustel gripped the old instrument as he was pulled backward by the shuttle's robotic arm, operated by astronaut Megan McArthur from inside the shuttle.

NASA TV-Reuters

Gallery Credits:
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Astronauts Visit Hubble in Repair Mission

In orbit 350 miles above Earth, astronauts from the shuttle Atlantis continue a series of ambitious and dangerous space walks in which they will replace, and in some cases repair, many of the Hubble Space Telescope's scientific instruments.

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