While standing on the end of Atlantis’ RMS arm, STS-125 mission specialist Michael Good works on the Hubble
Space Telescope. Good and fellow mission specialist Mike Massimino (out of frame) continue work on the HST,
locked down in the orbiter’s cargo bay. Credit: NASA
they set about gathering the tools
needed that had been developed
by aerospace and defence company ATK and then they checked out
the suits and equipment that would
be used during the EVA.
The crew was informed that the
damage assessment team had
cleared all of the orbiter’s TPS tiles
and blankets, and that all looked
safe which meant that the crew was
no longer required to do a detailed
tile inspection. Incidentally data
actually showed there had been a
wing impact event on launch as it
had been on Columbia in 2003 but
it was deemed to be well below the
force that would indicate a flight issue.
It was noted too that when a camera inspection of Atlantis’s cargo bay
had been carried out it seemed that
there was some sort of dust or debris
around the box housing the Wide
Field Camera (WFC-3). The crew took
hi resolution images of the debris and
it as deduced that it was not present at launch but most likely it was
caused by something that vibrated
and shook loose from the payload
bay insulation blankets during launch
3 days prior. The crew were advised
where at all possible to be careful
when working around the WFC-3
container but that is wasn’t a major
issue.
On the fourth day of the flight the
crew awoke to the song Stick Shifts
and Safety belts by CAKE an American Indie band from Sacramento,
California played for Andrew Feustal.
Today was going to see the first
EVA and it was John Grunsfeld and
Andrew Feustal that were given the
honour.
Using a high resolution camera
Feustel provided the team on the
ground a visual inspection report on
the material seen around the WFC-3
box, reporting to the ground team
that “I don’t really see any of those
particles” After getting their tools
and equipment for the EVA in place
and set they began to remove the
old Wide Field Planetary Camera 2
(WFPC-2), which was way back in
1993 during the the STS-61 Mission,
Grunsfeld and Feustel replaced it
with the new camera but not without )