spacetoday.net: Shuttle meets up with Hubble

Posted: Wed, May 13, 2009, 9:54 PM ET (0154 GMT)
STS-125: HST grappled by shuttle (NASA)

The space shuttle Atlantis rendezvoused with and captured the Hubble Space Telescope on Wednesday, setting the stage for a series of spacewalks to repair the telescope. Atlantis captured Hubble with its robotic arm at 1:14 pm EDT (1714 GMT) and berthed the telescope in the shuttle's cargo bay a short time later. With the telescope locked in place in the cargo bay, the STS-125 crew will perform a series of five spacewalks to replace instruments and other telescope components, extending the spacecraft's life by several years. The first EVA is scheduled for Thursday, when John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel will replace Hubble's WFPC2 camera with a new camera, replace a science data processing computer that failed last fall, and install a mechanism that will allow a future deorbiting vehicle to dock with the telescope.