spacetoday.net: NASA outlines Hubble repair plans

Posted: Wed, Jan 9, 2008, 6:46 AM ET (1146 GMT)
Hubble Space Telescope (NASA)

A shuttle mission scheduled for launch next year will allow the Hubble Space Telescope to remain in operation for at least five more years, agency officials outlined Tuesday. The STS-125 mission, currently scheduled for launch in August, is the fifth and final shuttle mission to service Hubble, which was launched by the shuttle in 1990. Five spacewalks are planned to repair two instruments currently on the telescope and install two new instruments, as well as replace gyroscopes, batteries, and thermal blankets. The instrument upgrades will make the telescope 90 times as powerful as it was after the first servicing mission in 1993, which corrected the telescope's flawed optics. NASA did warn that the repair mission could be pushed back because delays launching the next shuttle mission would have a ripple effect on other missions on the manifest.