By Liz McBreen
On March 1 at 6:22 a.m., Massimino finally heard the words "Lift off" and was on his way to completing what NASA officials have called a "challenging" eleven-day repair job on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Just as quickly as they went up, however, the seven-man crew member were almost forced to make their way back down to earth. Shortly after liftoff, the crew detected a problem in the cooling system of the space shuttle. For the remainder of the day, the crew and the scientists back on earth at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration headquarters in Houston tried to decipher if the problem would threaten the length and goal of the mission.
By early Saturday morning, it was determined that the crew was not in danger and that the mission would go on as planned. The launch that had sent the seven astronauts hurtling into space with 6,000 pounds of tools and equipment to be installed on the telescope had not been in vain.
Massimino's trip will be the fourth out of five space shuttle missions meant to replace old and damaged equipment and do routine maintenance on the Telescope. The first one in 1993, took place three years after the observatory was originally launched, and it was followed by missions in 1997 and 1999. These periodic upgrades have increased the apparatus' anticipated twenty-year life span by almost five years. The final upgrade will take place in 2004.
During their eleven days 360 miles above earth, the crew will be carrying out one of the most difficult tasks in the history of NASA. Four of them, including Massimino, will be doing spacewalks not only replace obsolete parts of the Telescope, but install an experimental cooling system, and add the new Advanced Camera for Surveys, among other upgrades.
The ACS produces images of faint objects that the current camera is not capable of producing. According to the NASA website, the first test pictures from the camera should be available five weeks after the crew returns.
