Monday - May 11, 2009

Atlantis Rising

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The seven-member crew of space shuttle Atlantis lifted off Monday for one of the riskiest shuttle flights yet — so risky, in fact, that another space shuttle is ready to launch in case they need to be rescued.

Atlantis launched at 2:01 p.m. EDT on one last maintenance mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, the 19-year-old orbiting observatory that floats at an altitude littered with space debris.

The spacecraft rocketed into mostly sunny skies right on schedule at 2:01 p.m. ET. Atlantis will spend five days upgrading the Hubble, the orbiting observatory that’s been scanning the universe for almost two decades.

For the seven members of the shuttle crew, that means added pressure.
“I think [this] is motivating us because we know there’s nobody coming after us to do anything we don’t get done,” said Atlantis Commander Scott Altman. “This is it. We either get it done or it doesn’t happen.”
It’s been seven years since NASA’s last Hubble servicing mission in 2002, and the space telescope was designed to go only about three years between fixes.

NASA canceled an Atlantis mission to extend Hubble’s operational life in January 2004 because the trip was considered too risky in the wake of the 2003 Columbia tragedy that killed seven astronauts. But public pressure and the development of safer shuttle technology led the U.S. space agency to reconsider.Video See shuttle astronauts discuss Hubble repair mission »

Still, some risks remain. NASA has estimated there’s a 1-in-221 chance the shuttle could be struck by orbiting space debris from past missions. Thousands of objects hurtle through the heavens, some as large as several feet in diameter, and the Hubble’s orbit is more crowded with space junk than that of the international space station, which orbits at a lower altitude, NASA said.

While the Atlantis’s shields would likely deflect a small piece of debris, a larger object could cripple the spacecraft, NASA said. Space shuttle Endeavour is on standby in the unlikely event that NASA will need to rescue the Atlantis crew members during their 11-day mission.

During five grueling space walks some 350 miles up in space, a pair of two-man teams from the Atlantis will work on the Hubble inside Atlantis’ cargo bay.

Nearly 30,000 people were at Kennedy Space Center for the launch, including space-center workers and guests.

On this fifth and final repair mission, Atlantis’ crew will replace Hubble’s batteries and gyroscopes, install two new cameras and take a crack at fixing two broken science instruments, something never before attempted.

Those instruments, loaded with bolts and fasteners, were not designed to be tinkered with in space.  They also will remove the command and data-handling unit that failed in September and had to be revived, and put in a spare that was hustled into operation. Fresh insulating covers will be added to the outside of the telescope, and a new fine guidance sensor for pointing will be hooked up. Five spacewalks will be needed to accomplish everything.

Lift-offs at NASA sure have changed since I was a kid. Or maybe we’ve just become so blase about it. I remember that voice “This is Mission Control”, and the TV being on, with the news cameras watching the rocket for hours and hours before the event. And it was, Look! Here come the astronauts! And the mission clock. Oh, the clock. So many times it had to be stopped because of some little problem. But finally everything would be right, the clock would be running and the final seconds ticking down. There go the liquid oxygen lines. There goes the main gantry. And the whole country sat on the edge of their seats watching, sharing that “T Minus 5, T Minus 4 T Minus 3” countdown as we sweated, worried, and prayed that huge but spindly thing off the ground, with Our Boys up there on the pointy end. “We have ignition!” and a fireball the size of your neighborhood lit off. The secondary gantry fell away as the ship began to move; how could such a great ungainly thing stay balanced? How could it fly straight, it doesn’t even have fins? The whole launch platform engulfed in roaring burning thunder as the rocket rose against implacable gravity. And faster and higher she went, a tongue of fire rising into the clouds. And so another mission began. And the whole nation exhaled.


I caught the lift-off in real time on TV a little while ago. I didn’t even know there was a launch today. The TV news station didn’t cue the voice-over to Mission Control. Is there even still a voice of Mission Control? There wasn’t even a countdown, or a countdown clock on the screen. The announcer just kept right on talking as the engines fired off. It was like “yadda yadda yadda, there it goes, yappity yap yap.” But at least the cameramen still knew their jobs, and we got to see the ignition, the lift-off, and that arcing awesome amazing action as Atlantis rose to skies, one last time.


Godspeed Atlantis.

Space Shuttle Mission: STS-125
Liftoff! Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-125 Astronauts En Route to Hubble

Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida today, rising on twin columns of fire to embark on ST-125, the final shuttle mission to service NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

Veteran astronaut Scott Altman is serving as commander, and retired Navy Capt. Gregory C. Johnson will serve as pilot. Mission specialists rounding out the crew are: veteran spacewalkers John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino, and first-time space fliers Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur.

Main Engine Cutoff: Atlantis Reaches Orbit
Mon, 11 May 2009 02:11:10 PM EDT

After a smooth countdown and picture-perfect liftoff, space shuttle Atlantis and a crew of seven astronauts are in space, ready to begin their 11-day mission to service NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis lifted off Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:01 p.m. EDT.

From the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the booster officer confirmed Atlantis’ trio of main engines cut off on time at 2:10 p.m. With Atlantis safely in orbit, its giant external fuel tank was jettisoned. Onboard cameras recorded the tank’s condition as it fell away from Atlantis and descends toward Earth.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/11/2009 at 01:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Science-Technology •  
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