ASTRONAUTS INSTALL SENSOR TO FINE-TUNE HUBBLE'S AIM.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Another pair of astronauts stepped out into the vacuum of space Friday night to give the Hubble telescope See Hubble Space Telescope. a sharper aim to go with its new, stronger eyes. Gregory Harbaugh and Joe Tanner, eager to get started with their mechanics' chores, floated into shuttle Discovery's open cargo bay nearly an hour ahead of schedule for the second spacewalk Verb 1. spacewalk - move in space outside a space craft walk - use one's feet to advance; advance by steps; "Walk, don't run!"; "We walked instead of driving"; "She walks with a slight limp"; "The patient cannot walk yet"; "Walk over to the cabinet" of the Hubble servicing mission. Their job while circling Earth at 5 miles a second: to install a guidance sensor needed to lock onto astronomical targets, an electronic package for the sensor, and a data recorder A data recorder is a piece of equipment which records data, and may also be called a data logger. Examples of data recorders are:
Meanwhile, in the cockpit, the pilots planned to boost the shuttle into a slightly higher orbit in which Hubble will be released early next week. During the first spacewalk the night before, Mark Lee and Steven Smith Stephen Smith, Steve Smith, or Steven Smith may refer to: In sports:
Lee and Smith turned in a by-the-book performance 370 miles above Earth during the first of four spacewalks to modernize the $2 billion Hubble, which was launched in 1990. The new instruments, a spectrograph with two-dimensional detectors and a near-infrared camera, are expected to be 30 to 40 times more efficient and powerful than the old ones, so astronomers can peer back into the universe practically to the beginning of time. ``One-hundred percent successful,'' Mission Control's Jeffrey Hoffman told the crew. ``Great way to start.'' Lee and Smith ventured outside the shuttle late Thursday night and spent 6-1/2 hours with the shimmering shim·mer intr.v. shim·mered, shim·mer·ing, shim·mers 1. To shine with a subdued flickering light. See Synonyms at flash. 2. Hubble, using top-of-the-line power tools as well as old-fashioned muscle power to replace two 1970s-era spectrographs with modern gear. ``From an astronomical point of view, it is almost impossible to imagine the Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the first large optical orbiting observatory. Built from 1978 to 1990 at a cost of $1.5 billion, the HST (named for astronomer E. P. Hubble) was expected to provide the clearest view yet obtained of the universe. being any better than it's been for the last three years, but you guys have made it so,'' said Hoffman, an astronaut-astronomer who took part in the 1993 mission to fix Hubble's blurred vision. The two new components passed initial electrical tests. But it will be several weeks before astronomers know for sure whether the instruments are working properly. |
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