Using the shuttle's robotic arm STS-125 Mission Specialist Megan McArthur grappled the Hubble Space Telescope at 12:14 p.m. CDT Wednesday. McArthur then maneuvered the telescope onto a Flight Support System maintenance platform in Atlantis' payload bay.
The stage is set for five spacewalks in as many days to repair and update instruments, extending Hubble's lifespan through 2014.
Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel conducted a final review of plans for the first spacewalk with the help of fellow spacewalkers Mike Good and Mike Massimino, and the rest of the crew. They also checked out all of the tools necessary for the mission's spacewalks.
Mission managers declared Atlantis' thermal protection tiles safe for reentry, but continue to examine the imagery from Tuesday's inspection of the reinforced carbon carbon on the shuttle's nose cap and wing leading edges.
Controllers Track Space Debris
The crew was notified of a very small piece of space debris that was identified within a range of interest of the space shuttle. The debris is from the Chinese Fengyun-1C weather satellite, which was destroyed by a Chinese missile test in 2007.
The flight dynamics folks stated that the debris is approximately 10 cm in size, 2.8 km in front of Atlantis, .15 km below and 3.9 km out of plane. It is expected to make its closest approach at 7:28 p.m. EDT. It is being tracked, but remains in the yellow category, meaning a maneuver is unlikely. The crew was told that no action was necessary and that a maneuver was not expected.
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