Friday, September 19, 2008
Writer: Shanna Relford
news@utsi.edu
Astronaut
Dominic Gorie, who successfully led the crew of mission STS-123 back
in March, is assigned to command another mission this year, but,
this time, everyone is hoping Gorie stays grounded. Gorie’s next
spaceflight would be a mission to rescue the crew of STS-125, going
up in October to make extensive repairs and additions to the Hubble
Space Telescope. No attempt to reach the Hubble has been made since
the tragic demise of the shuttle Columbia in 2003. Following the
Columbia disaster, former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe deemed the
journey to the Hubble too risky for humans and NASA began working on
ways to perform Hubble repair missions using robotics. But, Michael
Griffin, current NASA administrator, overturned O’Keefe’s decision
and began working on a safer plan for the next astronaut-manned
mission to repair the aging telescope.
The reason officials are so worried about the safety of astronauts
on a Hubble mission, is that, unlike the space flights to the
International Space Station, they would have no place of refuge if
their shuttle is irreparably damaged on the way to the Hubble.
Stranded astronauts have waited for rescue onboard the ISS for up to
90 days, but the STS-125 crew won’t have that option. So, NASA is
pre-planning a rescue mission that, should it be needed, will bring
the astronauts home safely and send the damaged shuttle speeding
into oblivion, burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific
Ocean. The plan for the rescue mission, STS-400, is nearly as
comprehensive as the repair mission. Chuck Shaw, flight director on
the Hubble mission and flight manager for the rescue mission
recently told Aviation Week & Space Technology Magazine, “We’ve got
to effectively plan a ghost flight that we certainly don’t have any
intention of having to fly, but you can’t not be ready to fly it.”
When the STS-125 crew takes off from Kennedy Space Center’s launch
pad 39-A in the shuttle Atlantis, the Endeavor will be on standby on
launch pad 39-B, where it will stay until Atlantis returns safely to
Earth, or it is called upon for the rescue mission. On Flight Day 2,
the crew on the Atlantis will perform a detailed inspection of the
ship using the video camera on its robotic arm, checking the
shuttle’s thermal protection system (TPS). It was damage to the TPS
that caused the destruction of the shuttle Columbia, and since then
NASA has developed a collection of equipment to repair the TPS if
they find damage. However, if ground controllers aren’t satisfied
that the repairs will allow the shuttle to return safely, Gorie, a
1990 UTSI graduate, will be called upon to lead the rescue mission.
Commander Gorie would be part of a four-man crew following Atlantis’
path to the Hubble to perform an in-orbit rescue, the first of its
kind. After lining up underneath the Atlantis, the crew would use
Endeavor’s robotic arm to connect to the Atlantis. The seven members
of the STS-125 crew would then climb along the arm to the Endeavor
for a safe return to Earth.
However, NASA says that, though meticulously planned, the rescue
mission will probably not be needed. If all goes well for STS-125,
scheduled for launch on Oct. 10, it will be the fifth and last
shuttle mission to the Hubble. The mission will require 11 days in
space with five days of spacewalks, each six and a half to seven
hours long, to complete the required repairs and upgrades. The crew
will install new cameras, swap out old batteries, and repair current
equipment to give the telescope at least five more years of
usefulness, probably more. According to NASA, if successful, the
crew of Atlantis will leave Hubble with advanced technology that
will improve its discovery power by 10 to 70 times.
