mutley 4,498 Posted September 20, 2008 Report Share Posted September 20, 2008 NASA is preparing to launch seven astronauts aboard Atlantis next month on the final service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, where the spaceflyers plan to perform five back-to-back spacewalks to install new cameras, replace aging batteries, gyroscopes and other components, add a docking ring and make tricky repairs to equipment never designed for in-flight maintenance. But unlike recent missions to the International Space Station, where shuttle crews had the option of awaiting rescue aboard the outpost if their spacecraft suffered critical heat shield damage, Atlantis astronauts have no such safety net because they must fly higher and in a different orbit than the station to reach Hubble. Instead, NASA plans to have Endeavour and a skeleton crew of four astronauts standing by in the unlikely event Atlantis' heat shield is damaged beyond repair and the orbiter is unable to return to Earth. Under that plan, Endeavour would rendezvous with Atlantis and astronauts would stage a series of three spacewalks to retrieve the Hubble astronauts before discarding the stricken spacecraft. More here - http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/08 ... llout.html Cheers Link to post Share on other sites
hurricanemk1c 195 Posted September 21, 2008 Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Ohh! Nice for NASA to send up another shuttle in case Kieran Link to post Share on other sites
MartinW 0 Posted September 21, 2008 Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Nice for NASA to send up another shuttle in case Yes very nice But a pity they didn't consider such things before the last tragedy. Brave astronauts had to die before the penny pinchers considered safety a little better. Link to post Share on other sites
MartinW 0 Posted September 21, 2008 Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 The video. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/o ... e=test.gif This is quite a mission. If we're going to take space engineering seriously this is vital experience. Is this the most intense mission we've done for space walks? I wouldn't be surprised. Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,498 Posted September 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2008 Nice link Mart, This is quite a mission. Cheers Link to post Share on other sites
Martyn 9 Posted September 22, 2008 Report Share Posted September 22, 2008 Brave astronauts had to die before the penny pinchers considered safety a little better. They were too busy spending cash on cheesy backing tracks for their PR videos :mrhappy: Link to post Share on other sites
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