National Aeronautics and Space Administration

PREPARING A VALENTINE FOR HUBBLE

The Hubble Space Telescope team is eagerly preparing to send a Valentine's Day present 360 miles straight up to their beloved telescope. Valentine's Day-February 14, 2002-is when the next upgrade mission to Hubble is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Shuttle Mission STS-109 will give Hubble a powerful new camera with twice the field of view and five times the resolution of the one it replaces. Astronauts will also fit the telescope with a smaller but more efficient set of solar arrays, a fresh power control unit, and an experimental cooling system to reinvigorate Hubble's infrared vision.

Hubble's designers knew that technology would advance rapidly-so they built the telescope to advance right along with it. During planned servicing missions, spacewalking astronauts install powerful new instruments and perform routine maintenance to keep Hubble healthy and on the cutting edge of technology throughout its 20-year life. Servicing Mission 3B is actually the fourth visit to Hubble. NASA split the original Servicing Mission 3 into two parts and conducted 3A in December of 1999.

Much of the 3B flight hardware is already at KSC, where dozens of team members are preparing it for integration into the Space Shuttle Columbia on Pad A at KSC. This is the last step in a long process that begins with a concept and includes specialized contractors from across the country. Eventually, all Hubble flight hardware ends up in Goddard Space Flight Center's Building 29, which holds the world's largest clean room. Here the equipment is assembled, tested and prepared for shipment to the launch site. This is also where the STS-109 astronauts train with actual Hubble flight hardware. Finally, the equipment is shipped to KSC, where the combined Hubble/Shuttle team continues integration, testing and final preparations for launch.

Getting the hardware from GSFC to KSC is no small feat in peacetime, let alone with our nation at war. The largest pieces of hardware, the carriers, had to arrive at KSC first for testing and integration. These are protective, cradle-like pallets that fit inside the Shuttle's payload bay and carry Hubble's new instruments and other hardware to orbit. Mark Hubbard, HST Carriers Development Integration and Test Manager, explains one of the team's first challenges: "Originally, we had planned to fly down with the carriers in an Air Force C-5 from Andrews Air Force Base to the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, but due to the war in Afghanistan, we lost the use of military air transportation and resorted to 'Plan B' which was the ground transportation via trucks and escort vehicles."

So, in mid-October and early November, truck convoys set out to deliver the four carriers that would fly aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-109. Hubbard rode with the convoys as the designated HST Project Representative. The oversized loads in the convoys were about twice the width of a normal road lane. Hubbard explains, "We had to acquire permits from each state along the route and this restricted which roads we could travel and the specific times of travel-daylight hours in some states, after dark in others."

"The escort team did a tremendous job of preparing for each leg along the journey, taking into consideration the different routes, the potential hazards along the route, the increased vigilance required due to the terrorist threat, and review of standard operating procedures," Hubbard said. "They coordinated the convoy operations with DOT and the state police along the route and also helped with hotel arrangements."

All of the planning and preparations paid off with the safe delivery of all four carriers. Both sets of truck operations went very smoothly. Over each three-day journey, the team maintained a safe environment for the spaceflight hardware through the use of an Environmental Control System and nitrogen purging.

Now the work continues at KSC as the Hubble team fits these carriers with Hubble's new hardware. All of this precious cargo will be fitted into the Space Shuttle Columbia, as the team continues to work toward a Valentine's Day launch.