NASA’s return to the Moon requires careful preparation. Finding safe landing sites, locating potential resources, and taking measurements of the radiation environment are some of the tasks the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft will perform while in lunar orbit. LRO is an unmanned mission that will create a comprehensive atlas of the moon’s surface and resources.
Soyuz TMA-15, launched from Baikonur on May 27, 2009, docked to the International Space Station on May 29, 2009. The crew aboard ISS now consists of six astronauts.
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| Credits: NASA |
Carnival of Space #104, the Arrow edition, is hosted by Mang (433rd) at Mang’s Bat Page.
This week you can read the story of Canada’s CF-105 Avro Arrow. You can also read about a full-scale Moonbase mock up, the Comet C/2008 Q3 Garrad, the Hubble repair missions, Centauri planets, Herschel and Planck, and much more.
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| Credits: NASA |
STS-125 Space Shuttle Atlantis was the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission (SM4). The STS-125 crew consisted of Gregory C. Johnson, pilot; Scott D. Altman, commander; Michael J. Massimino, Michael T. Good, K. Megan McArthur, John M. Grunsfeld, and Andrew J. Feustel, all mission specialists.
STS-125 has some history behind it. In 2004, NASA head Sean O’Keefe cancelled the long-planned Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4, invoking new safety rules that were applied to space shuttle flights after the Columbia disaster. By June 2004, NASA was considering a robotic servicing mission, which was also cancelled due to prohibitive costs. A change in NASA policy came with the new head of NASA, Michael Griffin. The risks associated with the SM4 mission were reassessed, and by 2008 SM4 was back on track.
On May 11, 2009, STS-125 Space Shuttle Atlantis launched at 2:01 PM EDT. There were no obvious debris events during launch and after going through the post-launch checklist, the crew prepared the orbiter for in-orbit operations and conducted a survey of the payload bay and the crew cabin using the robotic arm.
On May 13, 2009, at 17:14 UTC, flight day #3, Hubble Space Telescope was grappled and by 18:12 UTC, the telescope was berthed in the payload bay of Atlantis.
There were a total of five EVAs performed by the STS-125 crew. During EVA#1 (John Grunsfeld/ Andrew Feustel), the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) was replaced with the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), and the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit were replaced. A Soft Capture Mechanism (SCM) was also installed on Hubble. SCM will be used to capture and de-orbit Hubble at the end of its operational life. EVA#2 (Michael Massimino/ Michael Good) replaced all three gyroscope rate sensing units (RSUs) and one of the battery unit modules. EVA#3 (John Grunsfeld/ Andrew Feustel) removed and replaced COSTAR with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, and replaced faulty electronics cards from the Advanced Camera for Surveys. EVA#4 (Michael Massimino/ Michael Good) removed and replaced electronics cards for the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). EVA#5 (John Grunsfeld/ Andrew Feustel) replaced the second battery unit module, installed the Fine Guidance Sensor #3, replaced degraded insulation panels with New Outer Blanket Layer (NOBL)s, and also replaced a protective cover around Hubble’s low-gain antenna.
Hubble was released on May 19, 2009 (flight day #9). The telescope was lifted out of the orbiter’s payload bay using the robotic arm. After running through the release checklist, the STS-125 crew released Hubble at 12:57 UTC. The new equipment and the upgrades installed on Hubble will be tested for several months before resuming operation in early September.
Due to weather, which was less than favorable for landing, STS-125 had to delay the return to Earth for two days. The de-orbit burn was initiated on May 24, 2009, at 14:24 UTC.
STS-125 Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, on Sunday May 24, 2009, at 11:39 AM EDT.
The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft carrying the Expedition 20 crew lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 6:34 AM EDT Wednesday. The Expedition 20 crew members are Roman Romanenko, Frank De Winne and Robert Thirsk.
Expedition 20 marks the start of six-person crew operations aboard the International Space Station. The Expedition 19 crew, already aboard the station, consists of Gennady Padalka, Michael Barratt, and Koichi Wakata.
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| Credits: NASA |
Beginning in August 1961, the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (later known as the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory) developed the Apollo Primary Guidance, Navigation, and Control System (PGNCS). The PGNCS was an inertial guidance system that allowed Apollo spacecraft to navigate during periods when communication with Earth was interrupted. Both the Apollo command module (CM) and lunar module (LM) were equipped with a PGNCS.
This summer, June 10-12, MIT is hosting a celebration to honor those who made the Apollo Program possible. The highlights of the event are the Giant Leaps Symposium, In Memoriam: Robert Seamans, and Tours of MIT space labs. For more information, you can visit the MIT website.
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