-
#540
by
Retired Downrange
on 17 May, 2009 23:24
-
I like the Adam Riess quote in the NY Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/science/space/18hubble.html?hpThree of the bolts holding the handle on came off easily, but Dr. Massimino could not get traction with his drill on the fourth bolt head. After fussing with the bolt and then retrieving a new sharper drill bit from the airlock, he asked, “What’s Plan C?”
After a discussion about which way to apply tape to keep the broken bits of bolt from flying off into space or the telescope, and a review of the yanking procedures led by Commander Scott Altman, Dr. Massimino allowed that he would probably rock the rail back and forth once and then go for broke. As it happened, the shuttle had passed out of television range of mission control and an interplanetary audience.
“It’s off,” Dr. Massimino reported.
Adam Riess, who was watching on ASA TV and is a heavy Hubble user at the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University, wrote in an e-mail message: “We always joke that they wait until they are out of TV view to use the hammers and crowbars . . . I guess they really do!
[edit]...they could use an editor though.... "could not get traction with his drill" "retrieving a new sharper drill bit" "an interplanetary audience" "ASA TV"
-
#541
by
Lee Jay
on 17 May, 2009 23:32
-
-
#542
by
Chris Bergin
on 17 May, 2009 23:40
-
Tony says they'll do partial install of the NOBLs, and will increase how many they will do as they go.
Tear in Mass' EMU glove, possible start of a hole. No concerns as they've isolated the area where it happened.
Tomas: Any one thing along the path can put a stop to everything, and it could have happened yesterday.
Repeats what happened, that we already know, and shows his own handle. Didn't think this would cause a problem. Rest of the EVA went well.
Quote: "This is why we have humans in space" (damn right).
-
#543
by
GoForTLI
on 17 May, 2009 23:40
-
Tony Ceccacci: Testament to the team. PET 8:02. Talking about replan for tomorrow. Baseline is to do partial installs of 5 & 8. Protect capability to do full install. EV3's right glove has a cut.
Tomas Gonzales-Torres: Today didn't go quite a smoothly. Went through a lot of discussions on the handrail bolt. We fatigued the fastener until it broke off. It was very exciting when we got through this, a testament to humans in space. The rest of the EVA went well. Crew did a phenomenal job.
-
#544
by
Chris Bergin
on 17 May, 2009 23:46
-
Preston (HST) is happy they repaired STIS. Liveness test shows functionality. Functional test had a bit of a glitch (low temp violation), and put it into a safe mode. Will restart when it warms up, all looking encouraging.
Today reminded Preston about when he goes to his driveway and tries to fix his car. Understands Mass' frustration. Speaks about the handrail they have at Goddard that they tested the snapping of. "When it broke it just went "KER-PANG!!!" and then bounced back the other way," so glad it didn't do that with Mass.
35 tools - all new - used for the repair.
-
#545
by
Chris Bergin
on 17 May, 2009 23:48
-
Jennifer, Chief of complicated science (she has a long title, didn't catch it), is happy with Hubble capabilities being brought back on line. Talks about sciency things and is excited about looking for methane etc on planets far far away.
-
#546
by
Lee Jay
on 17 May, 2009 23:50
-
Jennifer's enthusiasm was abundantly apparent in her talk.
-
#547
by
Ronsmytheiii
on 17 May, 2009 23:51
-
-
#548
by
Chris Bergin
on 17 May, 2009 23:51
-
Preston didn't think they would have someone the size of Mass wrenching something off Hubble. Suspects he was pretty upset with Hubble was pumped up for the task.
ACS Hi Res channel has not worked yet, but that was a 50/50 situation and a bonus if it had worked. No hope of seeing that come back, but there was no way to predict from the ground.
-
#549
by
Lee Jay
on 17 May, 2009 23:56
-
They said that was a 3/16" (socket-head-cap, I think) Stainless screw he ripped off of there.
-
#550
by
Chris Bergin
on 17 May, 2009 23:57
-
Tony talks about e-mails between himself and Scooter at the end of day, and notes they are all still very much on the same page.
Tomas says the same, says they are all on sync.
-
#551
by
Chris Bergin
on 18 May, 2009 00:02
-
Fluff questions, then Robert asks a couple of good ones.
Glove hole (starting of a) is in the crotch area, no problem, not going back to that worksite.
No concern/requirement over the lack of Ku during Mass' handrail pull.
-
#552
by
Chris Bergin
on 18 May, 2009 00:05
-
That's pretty much it.
Wake up tomorrow 4:30am Central (10:30am UK).
-
#553
by
mtakala24
on 18 May, 2009 00:09
-
This constant armchair spacewalking is really starting to wear me out... Well done to the crew and also to the posters here! One more to go...
-
#554
by
psloss
on 18 May, 2009 00:21
-
(HD highlights being downlinked now.)
PAO Pat Ryan offers one reason for the last EVA duration being baselined at 5:45, which is that the crew needs to begin sleep-shifting back towards de-orbit. (And the timeline was already shifted forward an hour due to the length of EVA-2.)
-
#555
by
Retired Downrange
on 18 May, 2009 00:22
-
...looks like we may get to see onboard video of Mass'es busting the bolt... showing now on NASA TV
[edit] ...darn the downloaded video didn't get the actual bolt busting moment.
-
#556
by
MKremer
on 18 May, 2009 00:28
-
Black screen with flashes all over it - thunderstorms on Earth in HD.
-
#557
by
stockman
on 18 May, 2009 00:34
-
thanks for the past two days of coverage guys... the only way for me to catch up on low speed dial up this weekend is this forum... well done all.
btw - when are the SRB video's going to be out or have I already missed them??
-
#558
by
MKremer
on 18 May, 2009 00:46
-
btw - when are the SRB video's going to be out or have I already missed them??
You haven't missed them. I think it's more that they were recovered for the imaging team right before the weekend started, and there's no sources or PAO folks available to make them available for public viewing yet.
Hopefully late tomorrow.
-
#559
by
collectSPACE
on 18 May, 2009 01:09
-
Speaks about the handrail they have at Goddard that they tested the snapping of. "When it broke it just went "KER-PANG!!!" and then bounced back the other way," so glad it didn't do that with Mass.
I just wrote a short update about this, complete with a photo of the handrail and bolt example that Tomas Gonzalez-Torres shared during the briefing:
Flying off the handle, revisited
