STS-125/HST SM-4 Status Report No. 15 (Forwarded)

STS-125 MCC Status Report #15
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
Monday, May 18, 2009, 5 p.m. CDT

Human hands have touched the Hubble Space Telescope for the last time.
Astronauts Andrew Feustel and John Grunsfeld spent seven hours and two
minutes putting the finishing touches on the telescope in the final
spacewalk from a space shuttle airlock.

During the STS-125 mission's five spacewalks, Atlantis' crew completed all
of the mission objectives to improve Hubble's view of the universe.

Over the course of the mission's five spacewalks, the crew added two new
science instruments, repaired two others and replaced hardware that will
extend the telescope's life at least through 2014. The five spacewalks
lasted 36 hours and 56 minutes all together. There have been 23 spacewalks
devoted to Hubble, totaling 166 hours and six minutes.

The spacewalkers began today's work early and stepped quickly through the
main focus, swapping a battery module from Bay 3 with a fresh module and
removing and replacing the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) 2.

With that work complete, they installed New Outer Blanket Layers (NOBL) on
three bays on the outside of the telescope, one of which was a leftover task
from Sunday's spacewalk and the third was a bonus task.

About four months of activities are planned for checking out and calibrating
the instruments before scientific observations can begin again.

The crew's sleep period will begin at 7:31 p.m. CDT, and the crew is due to
wake up tomorrow at 3:31 a.m. to begin procedures to release Hubble. The
next status report will be issued at the beginning of the crew's day or
earlier if events warrant.