Shuttle mission critical for Hubble repairs, future

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The Space Shuttle Columbia mission is proceeding smoothly.

Damage to the thermal tiles that keep the shuttle from burning up on re-entry was minimal, according to photographs of the shuttle exterior, and astronauts Monday successfully completed repairs to the outside of the space station.

While the news that they are clear to return home next Monday reportedly thrilled the crew, a community of astronomers and engineers on the ground in Greenbelt and Baltimore are cautiously hopeful.

“There certainly is cause for optimism, but it’s not over ’til it’s over,” Ray Vallard, spokesman for the Hubble Space Telescope Institute told The Examiner.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has said he will authorize a mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope after two successful, incident-free shuttle flights. Pending a safe landing on Monday, this mission is looking like a success, Vallard said.

Griffin is expected to rule on the Hubble mission as early as September, and the flight could be on the schedule by late 2007, Vallard said.

But mission directors are optimistic, said Susan Hendricks, spokeswoman for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.

That optimism is almost a job requirement, she said. “If we waited until the very last minute, we wouldn’t be ready” for the Hubble mission.

Engineers are already assembling the new batteries, gyroscopes, instrumentation and other upgrades for the 2007 mission.

Technicians at Goddard are working around the clock to ensure the shuttle mission goes smoothly.

“We provide all the communications and data support,” said Jim Bangerter, network director. “It’s our responsibility to see that those images get down from the orbiter and get distributed to everyone who wants to see them.”

So far the images are good, he said. “The orbiter looks much cleaner than we have seen in the past.”

khille@baltimoreexaminer.com