WASHINGTON (nasa) – U.S. astronauts later Friday are due to make repairs on an infrared camera aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, one day after installing a powerful new camera.
The final scheduled space walk of the shuttle Columbia mission (scheduled for 8:30 GMT) consists of putting a new refrigeration system in the infrared camera, which has not worked for three years. The camera must be at temperatures near absolute zero to make its infrared images.
Thursday, two other astronauts replaced the Hubble’s main camera with a larger one, giving the telescope a wider view of the cosmos and stars.
The large camera will give Hubble more clarity and speed and may even help it see planets in other solar systems. Since it takes billions of years for light from distant galaxies to reach Hubble, the telescope photographs distant sites as they existed eons ago.
The Columbia crew is due back on Earth on March 12.
