Article Posted on : - Oct 06, 2008

File picture of Atlantis on a previous mission to the International Space Station

WASHINGTON (BNS): With the delay in the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-125 mission, NASA will return the payload for safekeeping.

A NASA release said that next week the payload installation procedure will be reversed and Hubble’s payload will be taken back to the Payload Hazardous System Facility (PHSF) for safekeeping until the STS-125 Shuttle processing is turned back on.

The Hubble Space Telescope spacecraft suffered a hardware failure in the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SIC&DH) module during the weekend of September 27-28, and the mission was postponed till early next year.

According to the release, on September 25, 2008, SM4’s payload was loaded into the Space Shuttle Atlantis on Pad 39A. “The payload was transported to the launch pad in the payload Canister, which was lifted up to the Payload Changeout Room (PCR). From there, the Payload Ground Handling Mechanism, or PGHM (pronounced “Pig M”) transferred the payload from the canister to the Shuttle’s Cargo Bay,” NASA said.

Meanwhile, NASA engineers at Goddard are preparing to run a Flight Acceptance Test next week on the Vehicle Electrical System Test (VEST) Facility of the procedures to switch the Hubble spacecraft to the redundant “B” side, the release said.