WASHINGTON (nasa) – The Hubble Space Telescope is back in orbit after a week of repairs and maintenance by astronauts from the U.S. space shuttle Columbia.
Engineers from the U.S. space agency NASA say the astronauts handled Saturday’s deployment perfectly, and that the giant telescope’s systems appear to be working normally.
The astronauts used a long robot arm to lift the 11,000 kilogram scientific satellite from the shuttle’s cargo bay, where it had been latched into position for the past week. The robot arm released the telescope when it was in the proper orbital position, then the shuttle crew fired brief bursts of their maneuvering rockets to move away.
During five spacewalks this past week, astronauts installed an experimental cooling system in Hubble’s infrared camera, replaced its power control unit and installed a larger main camera, giving the telescope a wider view of the universe.
The U.S. space agency’s Hubble project manager, Preston Burch, says the upgrades have made Hubble more scientifically capable than ever before.
Initial tests indicate all the new equipment is working, but Mr. Burch says it will take technicians two months to calibrate the hardware and take test images.
The shuttle and its seven astronauts are scheduled to land in Florida on Tuesday.
