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May 5, 2014 - Saying Goodbye to Hubble

Saying Goodbye to Hubble If space shuttles were creatures of habit, Atlantis might have headed straight for the International Space Station when it was launched five years ago this week. It had been more than fourteen years since Atlantis had traveled somewhere other than the ISS or the Mir space station. The STS-125 mission had a different goal: the fifth and final servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope, seen here as it was captured by the shuttle’s robot arm. During the thirteen-day mission, the crew added a new camera and spectrograph, and they replaced six gyroscopes, a fine guidance sensor, and two batteries. Although Hubble is now more powerful and healthy than ever, the crew did attach a new docking mechanism that would allow it to be deorbited at the end of its useful life

Image credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

May 5-11, 2014

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

 

Monday 5

Cinco de Mayo

Eta Aquarid meteor shower

1961: Freedom 7 suborbital flight; Alan Shepard is first American in space

Tuesday 6

First Qtr Moon 11:15 PM ET
Moon at apogee
Eta Aquarid meteor shower

1968: Neil Armstrong ejects safely from Lunar Landing Research Vehicle before it crashes
1975: NASA announces that Canada will build the Shuttle robot arm

Wednesday 7

1992: STS-49 Endeavour launched

Thursday 8

Friday 9

2003: Hayabusa launched, first mission to retrieve a sample from an asteroid

Saturday 10

Astronomy Day (Spring)

Saturn at opposition

1967: M2-F2 lifting body crash-lands; footage later becomes opening scene of “The Six Million Dollar Man”

Sunday 11

Mother's Day

Mars 3° north of Moon

1974: SMS-1 launched, first geostationary weather satellite
2009: STS-125 Atlantis launched, fifth and final Hubble servicing mission

Suggestions for new history dates or better links? Corrections for errors on this page? Please e-mail me.