CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — After five days, spacewalking astronauts finished repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope on Monday, leaving it more powerful than ever and able to peer even deeper into the cosmos — almost to the brink of creation.
The last humans to lay hands on Hubble outfitted the observatory with another set of fresh batteries, a new sensor for precise pointing and protective covers. That equipment, along with other improvements, should allow the telescope to provide dazzling views of the universe for five to 10 more years.
It was the fifth and final spacewalk for the shuttle Atlantis crew, and the final visit by astronauts ever to the space telescope.
During this last house call, astronauts gave Hubble two state-of-the-art science instruments and fixed two others.
The $220 million worth of new instruments should allow the telescope to gaze farther back into time — within 500 million or 600 million years of the first moments of the universe.
"This is a very important moment in human history,” said project scientist David Leckrone.
Hubble program manager Preston Burch acknowledged that the telescope still has some original parts, but noted "in many ways, it is a brand-new observatory.”
by the associated press
The last humans to lay hands on Hubble outfitted the observatory with another set of fresh batteries, a new sensor for precise pointing and protective covers. That equipment, along with other improvements, should allow the telescope to provide dazzling views of the universe for five to 10 more years.
It was the fifth and final spacewalk for the shuttle Atlantis crew, and the final visit by astronauts ever to the space telescope.
During this last house call, astronauts gave Hubble two state-of-the-art science instruments and fixed two others.
The $220 million worth of new instruments should allow the telescope to gaze farther back into time — within 500 million or 600 million years of the first moments of the universe.
"This is a very important moment in human history,” said project scientist David Leckrone.
Hubble program manager Preston Burch acknowledged that the telescope still has some original parts, but noted "in many ways, it is a brand-new observatory.”
by the associated press
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