CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Using elbow grease to avert disaster, a spacewalking astronaut battled a stubborn bolt to pull an outdated camera out of the Hubble Space Telescope on Thursday. His success paved the way for the installation of a more powerful camera that will allow the telescope able to peer even further into the past.
Astronaut Andrew "Drew" Feustel unexpectedly ran into trouble on Thursday as he attempted to turn a bolt holding the 15-year-old Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 onto the observatory. Feustel tried various tools to pry out the bolt, but it would not budge. If the bolt had broken off as he wrenched it, the old camera would've stayed in the telescope and its $132 million replacement would've had to return to Earth.
In the end, the combination of a different tool and sheer muscle saved the day.
"I think I got it!" exclaimed Feutsel, who was making his first spacewalk, as he pried the bolt out.
Feustel had less success later in the spacewalk, when he tried to install some mechanisms that would make it easier to open up the telescope for repairs.
"That'll do it, we hope," as he tried once again to turn a sticky bolt. "Been doing a lot of that."
Feustel and six crewmates are making the fifth and final house call to the renowned Hubble. The astronauts, who pulled up to the telescope Wednesday aboard space shuttle Atlantis, are scheduled for a whirlwind six-day stay to upgrade and repair the telescope for the last time.
Thursday's outing was the first of five spacewalks in five consecutive days. It was supposed to be a straightforward jaunt, so much so that before Atlantis launched, Hubble program manager Preston Burch pegged the odds of success at close to 100%.
The aging Wide Field 2 had other plans. When it came time to slide the old camera out of its slot on the telescope, Feustel tried first one tool, then another and another to turn the bolt that latched the camera to Hubble. Veteran spacewalker John Grunsfeld, Feustel's partner, even double-checked that Feustel had positioned his tools correctly.
The stakes were high. Though Wide Field 2 has been a workhorse for the Hubble, astronomers are anxious to start using its successor, Wide Field Camera 3, which promises to be 15 to 40 times more powerful. For instance, Wide Field 3 promises to give astronomers a view of galaxies forming just after the Big Bang.
There will be no more opportunities for Wide Field 3 to return to the Hubble. The only spacecraft capable of visiting the telescope is the shuttle, and it will be retired next year without making any more Hubble flights.
Luckily, Feustel found the right tool for the job and exerted enough force to get the bolt out.
"It's been in there for 16 years, Drew, and it didn't want to come out," said Grunsfeld.
"It just decided to be a recalcitrant teenager," said astronaut Michael Massimino, who was supervising the spacewalk from inside Atlantis and has a 13-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old son.
Later in the spacewalk, balky hardware did defeat Feustel as he tried to install some latches on the access doors to Hubble's interior. He got two in place but did not manage the third.
"It was a day of surprises," Feustel said as he prepared to re-enter Atlantis. "In traditional Hubble fashoin, Hubble threw us a few curves," said Grunsfeld, who was making his sixth spacewalk to service the telescope. "We were able to overcome them." He noted that they installed both the new camera and a replacement electronics box that routes data to and from the ground. The original box broke down in September.
The problems dragged the spacewalk out to nearly seven-and-a-half hours, an hour longer than planned and an hour longer than NASA likes to keep its spacewalkers "outside" in the vacuum of space.
"Ready for a hot shower and a good meal," said Grunsfeld as he prepared to re-enter Atlantis's hatch. "We'll see what we can do," Massamino promised his crewmate.
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