The Atlantis crew after a dress rehearsal for the mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope (Image: NASA/Kim Shiflett)
Launch of the mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope has, as widely expected, been postponed by four days to make up training time lost due to Hurricane Ike.
Space shuttle Atlantis is now expected to lift off on 14 October from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
The crew aims to install two new science instruments, replace Hubble’s batteries and gyroscopes, and attempt repairs of two broken cameras. NASA expects the mission to last 11 days and include five spacewalks.
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The Johnson Space Centre, where the crew are training, was closed for more than a week because of Hurricane Ike’s strike on the Houston area earlier this month. The closure forced the crew to miss four spacewalk training exercises and two simulations with flight controllers. “We’d like to have all the training as planned,” says mission commander .
The shuttle is at its launch pad and a second shuttle, Endeavour, is also being prepared for launch in case the crew needs to be rescued, as Atlantis will not be able to reach the International Space Station in an emergency.
NASA would like to fly the Hubble servicing mission as soon as possible, because Endeavour has a planned mission to the International Space Station due for launch in November. After 25 November, the inclination of the ISS to the Sun makes it impossible for the space station to generate enough electricity to power itself and the shuttle.
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