[music]
It's finally here, the fifth and last spacewalk of Servicing Mission 4.
When the day's over, NASA hopes to have a Hubble with some refurbished Fine Guidance
Sensors, another set of batteries, and three new protective panels to
insulate the telescope.
[astronaut] I'm coming out.
[astronaut] All the battery connectors are de-mated.
The batteries that have been on Hubble, have been on there for some 20 years now
and their capacity, their ability to deliver power to the telescope has
declined over the years. So we found that it was important to get a new set
of batteries up there. Get the capacity of the system back up, and insure that we
can be up there for at least meeting the five year mission goal,
and hopefully much longer than that.
[astronaut] ...the tether inside the connector is clear of the battery...
Things right now are going very well there. We're really ahead on the
schedule. Looks like they'll get everything done. So that's very exciting.
[astronauts] Really nice work on batteries guys. Aliveness test is good,
as you heard, we're on our way here today. FGS is next.
We are putting in a new refurbished FGS, that was brought back from a previous mission.
The Fine Guidance Sensor actually, really works well with the control system
to hold the telescope very precise on an image - so that we don't get
blurred images.
[astronaut] ...but you are "go" for the other connectors...
The sensor - the servo system has been degrading over the past few years
because of an electrical component problem and it was slowly dying, essentially.
So we had to replace this one.
[astronaut] John is going to try and use the EVA ratchet to break the torque on
that handle bolt. Do you have an MTL setting for us?
Ok, break free...come-on break free...
[astronauts] It's either 23 or 38. Yeah I think it's got to be 38, thanks John.
It will come out smoother when he takes it out.
[astronaut] ...I think you got it...
I am glad that everything went well with the FGS. We needed a good instrument
on board and this one here will last for a long time.
Bay 5 on the telescope is where we have engineering equipment, including the
transmitter which sends the scientific data back to the ground.
That equipment is running warm. And in fact after this mission we are going
to have more data coming to the ground because of the new scientific instruments
we just installed. When it runs warm we need to cool it off, so it can continue
to send that information down.
[astronaut] Peeling off slightly at the bottom corner.
Our main concern was really to make sure the crew was prepared to deal with it.
What happens if we see, say a large piece of blanket coming off? So we've trained them on
what to expect. They know that it's going to look bad. They know that there maybe big
pieces of blanket. They know that there may be little pieces of blanket.
To cool that bay, astronauts are going to roll-up the MLI that's currently on it.
[reporter] MLI?
Multi-Layered Insulation. After they roll it up they're going to have exposed
bare aluminum.
[astronaut] Megan you can stop there.
That bare aluminum is not good thermally in orbit. So they are going to cover it
with something called a NOBL. New Outer Blanket Layer.
And in the middle of the NOBL is the deployable panel exactly like this.
So, going to take this handle, flip it up, exposing adhesive on the back side.
Then going to peel off a release liner. So having big 400 square inch piece of "fly paper."
That fly paper will then be folded back on to the telescope.
And then they will use a roller to roll the new radiator on to the telescope.
The cover scares me.
Look how close he is...there's the cover floating around.
...here it goes...aw.
It's like a brush trying to get rid of a whole beach full of sand.
Holy cow...stuff is flying everywhere.
[announcer] The old insulation on Bay 8 of the Hubble Space Telescope obviously a bit
more fragile than - over the other Bay 5 that was swapped out just a few moments ago.
[reporter] Do they care that it's floating around out there?
They can't do much about it.
I mean they do care, but we're now done with all going into the telescope -
the instruments. So the risk of contamination into the instrument bay is gone.
The only thing that's left now is for opening up the aperture door of the telescope.
You don't want any of that migrating into the telescope. So typically what
they do is at the end of the mission is we ask for a reboost. We'll, the orbiter
takes us out of that debris field. But as of this morning they cancelled
that reboost. So we maybe re-asking for that , I'm not sure.
All in all, for something that's been up there for 19 years plus years I think it's
in pretty good shape.
[applause]
At least for the time being we think it's the last EVA. What's going through your mind?
We'll there's joy, because we have it all fixed. It's going to stay up there for,
my opinion another 10 years. But there's also sadness, to see it go.
I've been on Hubble really my whole professional career, so this is really
all I know. So it's mixed emotions knowing that everything was completed
successfully, but it is also sad knowing that this is probably the last time
we'll be up to see the Hubble.
[music]