Hubble Repair a Success.....

Looks like the mission was a success despite a couple of bulky bolts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lates.../idUSN20541732
.....During one spacewalk, astronaut Michael Massimino ripped off a
handrail when a single bolt prevented him from unscrewing it as planned
so he could reach the telescope's broken light-splitting spectrograph
for repairs.

"Whoever it is down there at the Goddard Space Flight Center who figured
out that we could just yank that handle off, I owe you one," Massimino
said.

President Barack Obama praised the "incredible repair mission" in a
telephone call with the crew.

"By allowing Hubble to continue on its journey, you have allowed all of
us to continue our journey for growth and exploration," Obama said from
the Oval Office.

He also joked with the crew, asking whether they could see whether the
grass needed cutting in the yard of his house in Chicago.

...."There is no person out there, no leadership out there, there's no
vision out there to pick up the baton that we're about to hand off and
carry it forward. And I think that's just a shame, to abandon one of the
most impressive, refined, sophisticated capabilities that this agency as
a whole, human side and robotics side, has achieved," Leckrone said.

.....Also on Wednesday, NASA started the countdown for a potential rescue
mission in case a final inspection of Atlantis' heat shield, which was
conducted on Tuesday by astronauts but is still being analyzed by a
ground control team, turns up any problems. The shuttle Endeavour will
remain on standby until Atlantis...



I agree with Leckrone.

Cool, Endeavour is counting down for a launch. Has anyone heard if
Endevour is carrying a bunch of repair materials, or not? Like large
graphite/SiC blankets, high temperature screws, ablative RTV, ...

As far as I'm aware, there are some repair items on both shuttles, but the
indications are that nothing big has hit the shuttle while on orbit.


Brian

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m...
Looks like the mission was a success despite a couple of bulky bolts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lates.../idUSN20541732
....During one spacewalk, astronaut Michael Massimino ripped off a
handrail when a single bolt prevented him from unscrewing it as planned
so he could reach the telescope's broken light-splitting spectrograph
for repairs.

"Whoever it is down there at the Goddard Space Flight Center who figured
out that we could just yank that handle off, I owe you one," Massimino
said.

President Barack Obama praised the "incredible repair mission" in a
telephone call with the crew.

"By allowing Hubble to continue on its journey, you have allowed all of
us to continue our journey for growth and exploration," Obama said from
the Oval Office.

He also joked with the crew, asking whether they could see whether the
grass needed cutting in the yard of his house in Chicago.

..."There is no person out there, no leadership out there, there's no
vision out there to pick up the baton that we're about to hand off and
carry it forward. And I think that's just a shame, to abandon one of the
most impressive, refined, sophisticated capabilities that this agency as
a whole, human side and robotics side, has achieved," Leckrone said.

....Also on Wednesday, NASA started the countdown for a potential rescue
mission in case a final inspection of Atlantis' heat shield, which was
conducted on Tuesday by astronauts but is still being analyzed by a
ground control team, turns up any problems. The shuttle Endeavour will
remain on standby until Atlantis...



I agree with Leckrone.

Cool, Endeavour is counting down for a launch. Has anyone heard if
Endevour is carrying a bunch of repair materials, or not? Like large
graphite/SiC blankets, high temperature screws, ablative RTV, ...

Brian Gaff wrote:

As far as I'm aware, there are some repair items on both shuttles, but
the indications are that nothing big has hit the shuttle while on
orbit.

I was just wondering what items they came up with, to pick a worst case
example, a hole in the nose cap RCC? Or, wing leading edge? They have
had years studying it, so what do they have? Things that may or may not
work, but that they have on hand to bring an empty crippled Orbiter down
to a safe landing?

Things like a form fitting blanket for the nose cap, a couple more for
the wing leading edge. Contingency type stuff, that is unverifiable, but
useful and would most likely work.