May 15, 2009 Vol. 49, No. 10 Spaceport News John F. Kennedy Space Center - America’s gateway to the universe www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/snews/spnews_toc.html INSIDE . Momentos head for Hubble Atlantis heads for Hubble on final upgrade mission By Linda Herridge Spaceport News Page 2 pace shuttle Atlantis’ STS-125 mission Astronauts enter thundered off Kennedy Space Center’s hall of fame SLaunch Pad 39A, at 2:01 p.m. EDT May 11, on the fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Atlantis carried seven crew members, four special payload carriers filled with new instruments, and the equipment and tools needed to upgrade the or- biting observatory. “It’s a great day to go fly,” said Shuttle Page 3 Launch Director Mike Leinbach, to the crew during launch countdown. “On behalf of Comedian treads Kennedy’s processing and launch team, I’d like to wish you, your crew and the whole Hubble in space Space Telescope team a great mission.” Scott Altman leads the STS-125 mission as commander, with Gregory C. Johnson as pilot. Mission specialists are Michael Good, Megan McArthur, John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino Space shuttle Atlantis and Andrew Feustel. It is the first spaceflight for roars into the sky above Good, McArthur and Feustel. Launch Pad 39A at Page 6 During the 11-day mission, Grunsfeld, Kennedy Space Center on May 11 at 2:01 Feustel, Massimino and Good will perform five p.m. EDT. During the Heritage: spacewalks to install new instruments and make 11-day flight and five Apollo 10 repairs or upgrades to other instruments on spacewalks, STS-125 Hubble. They also will install new gyroscopes, mission astronauts will orbits moon refurbish and upgrade battery modules and thermal blankets to support NASA’s Hubble Space Hubble through at least 2014. Telescope to expand its Two new instruments are the Cosmic Ori- capabilities and extend its operational lifespan gins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3. through at least 2014. Mission specialists also will make the first ever, in-orbit repairs to the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, or COS, is the most sensitive ultraviolet spectrograph ever flown on Hubble. See HUBBLE, Page 2 Photo by NASA/Tony Gray-Tom Farrar Page 7 Page 2 SPACEPORT NEWS May 15, 2009 Hubble inspires astronauts to bring momentos By Steven Siceloff a basketball that astronomer Edwin Spaceport News Hubble, the namesake of the space telescope, played with while on the rom a model of NASA’s Harvard University basketball team. Hubble Space Telescope to The ball has been deflated so it will Fa patch from the New York not take up as much room inside the City Sanitation Department, the shuttle. STS-125 mission astronauts are While outer space is boundless, marking the flight by taking a wide the space inside the shuttle is ex- variety of mementos with them into tremely limited. That’s why NASA orbit. allows astronauts a small amount of The crew of seven will spend room on each mission for collect- 11 days in space upgrading Hubble ibles or things they want to carry to during what is expected to be the mark their achievements. Some of last shuttle mission to the venerable the items reflect organizations as- observatory. tronauts were a part of, while others That mission is reflected in are taken up to give to friends when several items that make up the they get back. astronauts’ official flight kit. There’s Several schools are represented a pocket telescope and a 1.5-inch in the flight kit, including Clear diameter telescope lens. By com- Springs High School in League parison, the Hubble mirror is almost City, Texas, Schmitz Park Elemen- eight feet across. tary in Seattle, and Lake Orion High The astronauts also are taking School in Lake Orion, Mich. Three conductor batons will be stowed inside Atlantis, including one from the Houston Symphony orchestra. Atlantis also will take a ticket NASA file/1997 stub from the 2006 U.S. Open and a The STS-125 mission astronauts are taking scores of momentos up to NASA’s Hubble Space swimming cap from the U.S. Olym- Telescope, and will return them to Earth for space enthusiasts and friends. STS-125 is the fifth and final shuttle Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Upgrades are intended to keep the telescope pic swim team. operating through at least 2014. While some of the items look at the recent past as far as Hubble’s after the shuttles retire. Shuttle Program bookmarks also extraordinary accomplishments, The agency itself also includes will fly with Atlantis. a couple items look forward to scores of souvenirs that are some- As you might imagine, there NASA’s new spacecraft. There is times passed out to workers and are more Hubble commemorative a patch and decal from the Orion managers, or given to world leaders. items on STS-125 than anything crew exploration vehicle project, There are 625 mission patches, else. Those are 5,643 patches which is developing the capsule in- plus 600 American flags. reflecting different aspects of the tended to carry astronauts into space Another 700 sheets of Space telescope program. From HUBBLE, Page 1 Advanced Camera for Surveys, these nedy), the whole team, everyone has at 11:41 a.m. EDT May 22. The pay- two instruments could create Hubble pulled together. We’re taking a little load carriers with old Hubble parts “It (COS) is designed to study imaging history. piece of all of us into space,” said will be removed from Atlantis’ pay- large-scale structure of the universe The Space Telescope Imaging STS-125 Commander Scott Altman load bay and transported to Goddard and how galaxies, stars and planets Spectrograph is the most versatile to Leinbach, moments before liftoff. Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, formed and evolved,” said Debbie spectrograph to fly on Hubble. The NASA’s Hubble Space Tele- Md. The old parts will be studied for Hahn, the STS-125 payload man- crew will replace an electronics scope was deployed on April 25, thermal property degradation and ager. “It will help determine how ele- board in one of the spectrograph’s 1990, during Discovery’s STS-31 micrometeorite damage. ments needed for life, such as carbon main electronics boxes to restore its mission. Previous servicing missions Space shuttle Endeavour is on and iron, first formed and how their power supply. are Endeavour’s STS-61 mission Launch Pad 39B during Atlantis’ abundance have increased over the A new Science Instrument Com- in December 1993; Discovery’s Hubble mission and is designated lifetime of the universe.” mand and Data handling system will STS-82 mission in February 1997; STS-400 in the unlikely event it The Wide Field Camera 3 will replace the one that failed in Hubble Discovery’s STS-103 mission in is needed for a rescue flight. After be able to span our vast electromag- last year and delayed Atlantis’ mis- December 1999; and Columbia’s Atlantis lands, Endeavour will roll netic spectrum. It is the only instru- sion. STS-109 mission in March 2002. around to Launch Pad 39A on ment on Hubble with this capability. “Getting to this point has been Atlantis is scheduled to land at May 30, for its next flight, STS-127 Combined with the repair of the challenging, but your team (Ken- Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility to the International Space Station. May 15, 2009 SPACEPORT NEWS Page 3 NASA/Jim Grossmann The three newest inductees into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame proudly join current members during an induction ceremony May 2, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. In front, from left, are George “Pinky” Nelson, one of only six space shuttle astronauts to fly untethered in space using NASA’s Manned Maneuvering Unit; William Shepherd, commander of the first crew to live aboard the International Space Station; and James Wetherbee, commander of the longest-docked shuttle mission with space station Mir. More than 20 hall of fame astronauts attended, including Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Scott Carpenter, James “Jim” Lovell and Bob Crippen. Trio of shuttle astronauts join hall of fame ommanding five he is a safety auditor with “Every giant leap is re- technologies and capabilities of six space shuttle Did you know? BP Global, one of the larg- ally made up of many small for the nation’s special opera- missions and guiding steps,” Nelson said. “I’m tions forces. C With the inductions of George est energy companies in the Discovery to within 30 feet “Pinky” Nelson and Jim Weth- world. proud to have played a part in “I feel very privileged of space station Mir might erbee, all the original members “I’ve learned a lot over some of those steps.” to be part of the Astronaut inflate anyone’s ego. But not of the astronaut band Max Q, my prestigious career,” Shepherd, a four-time Corps,” Shepherd said, “and astronaut Jim Wetherbee. His which was formed in 1987, are space shuttle astronaut and to be put in space by the folks now in the U.S. Astronaut Hall Wetherbee said. “I really wife, Robin, manages to keep of Fame. appreciate everything I’ve recipient of the Congressional who work (at Kennedy) to the space explorer grounded. learned.” Space Medal of Honor, was build vehicles and help oper- After coming home from a Nelson was a member assigned to NASA from the ate them.” mission, Wetherbee said his This eighth group of of the first spacewalking U.S. Navy SEALs commu- Also introduced at the wife told him: “Great flight, space shuttle astronauts was team to repair a satellite in nity.