TROUBLED HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE PULLED IN BY SHUTTLE FOR REPAIRS
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
The New York Times (Copyright 1993 The New York Times)
priority: Urgent
date: 12-04-93 1712EST
catagory: Domestic
subject: BC SHUTTLE HUBBLE ART
HOUSTON- Arriving for a house call at 357 miles above Earth, the astronauts of the space shuttle Endeavor reached out Saturday with a mechanical grappling arm and easily snared the Hubble telescope.
The orbital retrieval paves the way for the shuttle's astronauts to treat the crippled spacecraft in five days of the most complex orbital repairs yet attempted.
"Houston, Endeavorhas afirm handshake with Mr. Hubble's telescope," Col.
Richard D. Covey of the Air Force, the shuttle commander, radioed to
Mission Control in Houston after the robotic arm had grasped the 1.6
billion telescope.
The shuttle's successful rendezvous with the orbiting telescope was the first major step in a mission that could be fateful to both astronomy and NASA
Installing new mirrors to overcome Hubble's blurred vision will return the telescope to its full abilities, giving the astronomers a view almost to the edge of the universe. And such a highly visible success could boost the space agency's reputation at a time it is seeking support for building an international space station.
once the 12.5-ton telescope was securely berthed in the open cargo bay Saturday morning, it was ready for the astronauts to begin the first of their five space walks early Sunday morning.
The schedule calls for Dr. Musgrave and Dr. Jeffrey A. Hoffman to replace failed gyroscopes, two electronic control units and some fuses.
