Astronauts Complete Final Work on Hubble

After five long and amazing spacewalks, the astronauts on board NASA's Atlantis Space Shuttle have completed all of the repair work needed on the Hubble Space Telescope. The marvelous repairs made by the astronauts should give scientists on Earth the ability to see the universe for at least another decade by using Hubble.

The STS-125 crew completed the last bit of work on the telescope on Monday at 3:22 PM EDT, a little over seven hours after they began the spacewalk Monday morning.

The spacewalkers were able to finish the mission's battery replacements to ensure a longer and fully operable life of Hubble after the crew has departed.

They were also able to replace the telescopes fine guidance sensors, the sensors used to provide pointing information and serve as a instrument for determining relative position and motion of stars.

Then finally Grunsfield and Feustel were able to work on the New Outer Blanket Layer (NOBL) on the outside of the telescopes Bay 5, Bay 8, and Bay 7 which normally face in the directory of the Hubble's orbital travel. These blankets were expected to deteriorate more in the space environment. The NOBL on Bay 8 was to be installed during the fourth spacewalk, but the crew was unable to accomplish it due to work on a stripped bolt.

The repairs that the astronauts have made to the Hubble Space Telescope has greatly enhanced the telescopes abilities and have also breathed new life into the aging space telescope. The total amount of new equipment that was installed was worth nearly $220 million, with the total trip costing nearly $1 billion.  The astronauts have put in a lot of long hours, with one spacewalk marked as the sixth longest spacewalk in history. 

"This is a really tremendous adventure that we've been on, a very challenging mission," Grunsfeld said. "I want to wish Hubble its own set of adventures and, with the new instruments we've installed, that it may unlock further mysteries of the universe."

The spacewalk today lasted 7 hours and 2 minutes.

Mission Control congratulated all of the STS-125 crew for performing the exceptional "electronic brain surgery" on Hubble.