Article Posted on : - May 21, 2009

Hubble telescope in space. A file photo.

CAPE CANAVERAL (BNS): Years of training did not prepare the shuttle Atlantis astronauts for the problems encountered during NASA's final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, according to a media report.

“It's amazing looking back at how hard things looked a couple of times -- more difficult than I ever expected -- and then to overcome and wind up with everything done in the way that it was. We were very successful, “Reuters quoted Atlantis commander Scott Altman as saying Wednesday.

After conducting five spacewalks to repair the 19-year-old Hubble with two new science instruments, fresh batteries, six positioning gyroscopes and other gear, the crew has began preparations for their homecoming.

The seven astronauts worked on two broken cameras that were never intended to be repaired in space, let alone by astronauts wearing the bulky gloves and pressurized suits needed for spacewalks, it said.

During one spacewalk, astronaut Michael Massimino ripped off a handrail when a single bolt prevented him from unscrewing it as planned so he could reach the telescope's broken light-splitting spectrograph for repairs.

"Whoever it is down there at the Goddard Space Flight Center who figured out that we could just yank that handle off, I owe you one," Massimino said.

Atlantis' flight is NASA's fifth and final servicing mission to Hubble before the shuttle fleet is retired next year.

Being able to service satellites in orbit is "one of the valuable things NASA has learned how to do," Hubble project scientist David Leckrone said. "It just makes me want to cry to think that this is the end of it."

"There is no person out there, no leadership out there, there's no vision out there to pick up the baton that we're about to hand off and carry it forward. And I think that's just a shame, to abandon one of the most impressive, refined, sophisticated capabilities that this agency as a whole, human side and robotics side, has achieved," Leckrone said.

If the weather permits, the shuttle crew will land on Friday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Wary of storms moving across the peninsula, however, NASA has advised the astronauts to save power by turning off “unneeded equipment” in case their landing is delayed, it added.