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Let there be light: Camera hooked up for Hubble

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-15 13:46

The NASA space shuttle Atlantis is seen in silhouette from a solar transit image as it moves in space with the sun in background, in this image made May 12, 2009, from Florida and released by NASA May 14. This image was made before Atlantis and the crew of STS-125 had grappled the Hubble Space Telescope. [Agencies]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- A pair of spacewalking astronauts overpowered a stubborn bolt and successfully installed a new piano-sized camera in the Hubble Space Telescope on Thursday, the first step to making the observatory better than ever.

"Let there be light," spacewalker John Grunsfeld said as ground controllers checked the power hookups.

Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel also completed other major chores, replacing a science data-handling unit that broke last fall and hooking up a docking ring so a robotic craft can guide Hubble into the Pacific years from now.

The nearly 7 1/2-hour repair job - all the more dangerous because of the high, debris-ridden orbit - got off to a slow and rocky start.

John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel had trouble removing the old camera from the telescope because a bolt was stuck. They fetched extra tools, but none seemed to work.

Finally, Mission Control urged the astronauts to use as much force as possible, even though there was a risk the bolt might break. If that had happened, the old camera would have been stuck inside, leaving no room for its souped-up replacement.

"OK, here we go," Feustel said. "I think I've got it. It turned. It definitely turned." And then: "Woo-hoo, it's moving out!"

The extra effort paid off but put the astronauts a little behind schedule in their first spacewalk of shuttle Atlantis' mission. In all, five high-risk spacewalks are planned to fix Hubble's broken parts and plug in higher-tech science instruments.

Atlantis and its crew are traveling in an especially high orbit, 350 miles (560 kilometers) above Earth, that is littered with pieces of smashed satellites. A 4-inch (10-centimeter) piece of space junk passed within a couple miles of the shuttle Wednesday night, just hours after the shuttle grabbed Hubble. Even something that small could cause big damage.

For the first time, another shuttle is on standby in case it needs to rush to the rescue.

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