"flyguy" wrote in message
...
The subject of STS-125 and the Hubble's orbit came up on another group. I
misremembered it being in an equatorial orbit when of course (duh) it was
launched into the same inclination as the 28.5-deg latitude of the Cape.
But this got me to wondering why they didn't put Hubble in an equatorial
orbit, considering the possible benefits of less complicated celestial
tracking and orbital issues such as precession. Was the 28.5-deg orbit
chosen mainly because the Shuttle doesn't have the fuel capacity to do an
equatorial dog-leg maneuver, even with the assist of the OMS during the
launch phase, with a payload as massive as Hubble?

That is it.

Could the Shuttle have used the OMS engines to make an orbital plane
change from a temporary 28.5-deg orbit into an equatorial one before
releasing the Hubble? Perhaps the answer is they would have if they could
have.



--
Greg Moore
Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC.