SM3B: Mission to Hubble
Explanation:
Now complete,
Servicing Mission 3B
(SM3B) was really the fourth trip to the
Hubble
Space Telescope, as the originally planned
mission 3
was split
into two parts.
Falling around
planet Earth, about 320
nautical
miles above the surface, the 13.2 meter long
Great Observatory is
pictured
here in Space Shuttle Columbia's payload bay on March 5.
Spacesuited
astronaut Michael Massimino works under Hubble's "hood"
while poised at the end of Columbia's Remote Manipulator System
or
robotic arm.
Columbia's arm extends from the picture's right hand edge and
a folded solar panel rests horizontally above Massimino's position.
Dramatic backlighting is provided by a
smiling sunlit crescent
of Earth's atmosphere.
SM3B supplied Hubble with a new camera, and substantial
power and
instrument
upgrades which are presently being turned
on and prepared for operation.
The next
Hubble
service call, SM4, is planned
for 2004.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
