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Hubble fails; shuttle delayed |
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Posted by Orange Blossom Special on Mon Sep 29 19:03:05 2008 Good for you, I may get a chance to get some sort of DSLR or something like that by the time they get the bird off the ground.If I get to see it that is. I almost made plans for the canceled mission this morning too! NASA delaying mission to repair Hubble telescope NASA managers have decided to delay the long-awaited launch of shuttle Atlantis to fix the Hubble Space Telescope to a yet to be determined date after the orbiting observatory stopped sending science data to the ground. The system that failed on Saturday night means the telescope is unable to capture and beam down the data used to produce its stunning deep space images for which the Hubble is famous, officials said Monday. A NASA press release on Monday afternoon said fixing the problem will delay next month's space shuttle Atlantis Hubble servicing mission. "As a result of the launch delay, NASA has postponed the planned Oct. 3 Flight Readiness Review and subsequent news conference. The review will occur at a later date," it said. NASA said that malfunctioning system is side A of Hubble's Control Unit/Science Data Formatter, which failed on Friday when the telescope stopped sending data back to Earth. Technicians tried to reset the system and download the date but failed. NASA thinks that the unit's backup system -- Side B - should work although they have not been activated since the late 1980s. Even if the backup kicks in as hoped, NASA managers are looking at sending up a replacement part, which would have to be installed by spacewalking astronauts. It would take time to test the replacement part and to train the astronauts to install it in the telescope, NASA would have to work out new mission details for the astronauts who have trained for two years to carry out five Hubble repair spacewalks. Managers are now looking at alternative dates. Among the considerations is planning a new emergency rescure mission. The Hubble is in a further orbit than the international space station. Should Atlantis be damaged during liftoff there'll be no "safe haven" where the crew could dock and await rescue. Therefore, NASA wants a second shuttle at the ready just in case something happens and they need to launch a rescue effort. Right now the shuttle Endeavour is on a launch pad adjacent to Atlantis poised to go. But with the mission now pushed back Endeavour is likely to be cleared for it's mission the space station in November, meaning NASA will need a new plan. The agency is already looking at contingencies. The delay is blow to NASA's efforts to fly out the current shuttle manifest in order to retire the orbiter fleet in 2010. But Congress has given the agency and the next administration until April next year to consider flying the shuttle longer. |
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Re: Hubble fails; shuttle delayed |
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Posted by Olog-hai on Mon Sep 29 19:54:58 2008, in response to Hubble fails; shuttle delayed, posted by Orange Blossom Special on Mon Sep 29 19:03:05 2008. Now this part is enough to give people nightmares:The Hubble is in a further orbit than the international space station. Should Atlantis be damaged during liftoff there'll be no "safe haven" where the crew could dock and await rescue. Therefore, NASA wants a second shuttle at the ready just in case something happens and they need to launch a rescue effort.Certainly takes being fearless to risk that, eh? |
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| (361953) | |
Re: Hubble fails; shuttle delayed |
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Posted by Orange Blossom Special on Mon Sep 29 22:33:05 2008, in response to Re: Hubble fails; shuttle delayed, posted by Olog-hai on Mon Sep 29 19:54:58 2008. then endevour would launch, and atlantis would be ditched into the Pacific thereby ending the US's role in space.I forgot the other big news today. The Chinese came back, and announced their moon program. Back to the shuttle. The orbit is so high, it uses an extreme amount of few. Almost to the point where there's no margin of error to make a mistake going up to the proper orbit and then come back at once. That's the original scary part about this particular mission, and the last service ones. |
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