Hubble Space Telescope to be repaired

November 1, 2006 by Thomas Marquart | No comments

Yes, it’s all over the web, but still: NASA will dedicate a space shuttle to give HST a service mission in 2008. This is reverting an earlier decision canceling this. The intent is to do several things:

  • The gyros will be replaced (these are needed for positioning and there are few working left),
  • so will the batteries
  • and one of the Fine Guidance Sensors.
  • WF3, a UV to near-IR imager, will replace WFPC2.
  • COS, a UV spectrograph, will be put into the space where the correction optics were installed in the first service mission. These are now built into the instruments themselves and not needed anymore.
  • They will make an attempt to replace the failed electronics of STIS.