Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission Four (HST SM4) Unique Challenges for STS-125

摘要

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has nominally been serviced every three years; but seven years have now passed since the last servicing mission. The current mission (SM4) is much broader in scope than any before, demanding a much higher degree of safety participation in hardware design and mission operations. Unprecedented hardware installation includes batteries, a new science instrument computer and a Soft Capture Mechanism (a structure enabling the future safe de-orbit of HST). The mission includes challenging extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) to restore two instruments never designed for on-orbit repair. Following a successful five EVA day mission, a restored HST should return science well into the next decade and enable a safe de-orbit at the end of observatory life.