Hubble trouble: Space Shuttle suffers heat shield damage during mission to upgrade telescope



Nasa has despatched seven astronauts on its most dangerous ever shuttle mission as it attempts to rescue the $7billion Hubble Space Telescope from meltdown. The Atlantis shuttle has already run into problems suffering heat shield damage during launch.



Led by former US Navy fighter pilot Scott Altman, 49, a one-time stunt flier for actor Tom Cruise in the film, Top Gun, the crew of Atlantis will repair and upgrade the orbiting observatory, risking a potentially deadly space-junk collision that could leave them stranded 350 miles above Earth.

A camera aboard space shuttle Atlantis captured this image as the shuttle soared over the Earth. Saudi Arabia is in the foreground and Israel and Jordan can be seen near the top edge of the frame.

The crew have already begun the standard survey of the space shuttle's heat shield using the robotic arm. This procedure was introduced after the Columbia shuttle disintegrated on its return to Earth in 2003 because of heat shield damage.



NASA said Atlantis shuttle was hit by a piece of debris that nicked part of its heat shield during launch but said the damage appeared very minor.

The mission, which is costing Nasa $1.4billion and was launched from Florida on Monday, is considered so perilous that it was once cancelled by space agency chiefs who feared that it could cost the astronauts their lives.



Debris from Atlantis' launch is seen hitting the shuttle's right wing edge (l). It caused minor damage (r)



It was resurrected only after they agreed to place a second shuttle and crew on emergency standby, ready to blast into space to save their colleagues should a catastrophe occur. The move is unprecedented in the 28-year history of the shuttle fleet.

'It’s a belt-and-suspenders kind of approach - but when your suspenders fail, you’re glad to have the belt,' said Cdr Altman, who launched with his crew from Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, due to return in 11 days.

'I don’t know if I’ll be breathing comfortably until our wheels stop back at KSC,' he added.

Should a rescue become necessary, it would provide the greatest space drama since the abortive Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970, say Nasa insiders, when three astronauts limped their crippled spacecraft home just hours from death, following an on-board explosion.

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida

The Hubble crew: (l-r) Michael J Massimino, Michael T Good, Gregory C Johnson, pilot; Scott D Altman, commander; K. Megan McArthur, John M. Grunsfeld and Andrew J. Feustel

Among the greatest hazards facing Atlantis is the intense amount of space junk - such as broken satellites and dead rockets - that is cluttering the area where the shuttle will rendezvous with Hubble.

Shuttle flights usually only go to the International Space Station no more than 250 miles up - but at 350 miles, where Hubble flies, the hazards are far greater.



If Atlantis suffers damage, the crew would be marooned.

Hubble is considered the most valuable astronomical tool since Galileo first designed a telescope in the 17th century.



Since 1990, its high-precision lenses have peered deeper into space than any previous instrument, glimpsing back more than 13 billion years in time to provide scientists with breathtaking images of the cosmos under development, showing galaxies not long after they merged from the Big Bang.

Orbiting Earth 97,000 times and travelling around three billion miles, it has sent back nearly 600,000 photographs that have forced the rewriting of astronomy textbooks and unlocked some of the greatest mysteries of the universe.

On Wednesday Atlantis will catch up with the Hubble, where the astronauts will use the shuttle’s robotic arm to grapple with it while both craft orbit Earth at 17,500mph.



During five highly risky spacewalks, they will clamber aboard Hubble to repair and replace instruments contained inside, upgrading its capabilities and prolonging its life for another five years.

Without new cameras, gyroscopes and batteries, Hubble will otherwise burn out. But with the space shuttle fleet due to retire next year and its successor not due for completion until at least 2015, this is the last chance to fix its problems.

'The adrenalin is certainly pumping,' said Dr David Leckrone, Nasa’s senior Hubble scientist.

This Hubble image from 2003 shows a storm of turbulent gases in the Omega-Swan nebula

Astronaut John Grunsfeld likens the intricacy of the tasks he and his colleagues will perform to 'performing brain surgery in space.'

They will face major hurdles, such as unscrewing dozens of minute screws while wearing gloves five layers thick and removing razor-sharp circuit boards capable of piercing the $10 million spacesuits that keep them alive in the vacuum of space.

'I would consider this the climbing Mount Everest of spacewalking missions,' said Mr Grunsfeld, 51.

'The big unknowns are where we’re pushing the envelope further than its been done before in spaceflight…we’re trying some techniques that haven’t been done before.



'In training it’s been going very well…the only hesitation I have is that Hubble has a way of surprising us.'

There have been previous servicing missions to the Hubble, but this will be the last – and the most risky.

'You could say "Oh it’s going to be a piece of cake, we’ve done this five times" - except on this mission we are going to be repairing instruments that were never designed to be repaired in orbit,' explained Ed Weiler, Nasa’s associate administrator for science missions.

He added: 'This is really going to be tough, the toughest servicing mission we have ever attempted.'

Nasa promises that, if successful, Atlantis’s mission will allow Hubble to once more 'push the boundaries of how deep in space and how far back in time humanity can see.'