spacetoday.net: New camera, computer installed in first Hubble EVA

Posted: Fri, May 15, 2009, 8:20 AM ET (1220 GMT)
STS-125: EVA #1 (NASA)

Spacewalking astronauts successfully installed a new camera and replaced a faulty computer on the Hubble Space Telescope, but not without some difficulties, during an EVA on Thursday. Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel spent 7 hours and 20 minutes outside the shuttle Atlantis on Thursday on the first of five spacewalks designed to refurbish the telescope. The two removed an old Hubble camera, the Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), and replaced it with a new instrument, the Wide Field Camera 3. The two also replaced a faulty science data processing computer and installed a mechanism that would allow a future spacecraft intended to deorbit the Hubble to dock with the telescope. The work went well, with the exception of a stuck bolt on the WFPC2 that took extra effort to loosen before the old camera could be removed. Astronauts Mike Good and Mike Massimino will carry out the second EVA of the mission on Friday, replacing batteries and gyroscopes.