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CNN Live At Daybreak
Space walkers Attach New Array to Hubble Telescope
Aired March 04, 2002 - 06:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well right now two astronauts are bringing some new electrical life to the Hubble Telescope and it's more than just a battery swap.
Hubble Hunk Miles O'Brien here with us with the latest.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you very much.
PHILLIPS: You like that?
O'BRIEN: Hubble Hunk.
PHILLIPS: Pretty good.
O'BRIEN: I like that.
PHILLIPS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: You know I could use a battery swap right about now...
PHILLIPS: Yes, a little...
O'BRIEN: ... for being up all night watching the space walk.
PHILLIPS: You need a pump.
O'BRIEN: It's gone fairly well. As a matter of fact, just a few moments ago, the only real problem with this space walk which was a bulky bolt which made it difficult for space walker Rick Linnehan to attach the old solar array to the Columbia's cargo bay, that problem finally got solved.
And it is currently latched down nice and snug just the way NASA likes it for the return to Earth. If they -- if they couldn't get it latched down, they'd have to heave it over the edge of Columbia and send it down to its fiery demise.
Take a look at John Grunsfeld, he's having a good time. He's up there waiting for Linnehan to finish with his bolt. He's probably been enjoying the view, no doubt.
And look at this picture, this is from the aft section of the crew compartment looking back into the cargo bay, very quickly there. And back to Grunsfeld we go. Grunsfeld, as I said before, is a free floater. Bit of a misnomer, he's got -- you can't see them very well now, but he's got several -- as he waves to us.
PHILLIPS: Thank you. He's waving. He saluted.
O'BRIEN: Maybe he's -- do you think he's listening to CNN at this juncture?
PHILLIPS: Yes, absolutely. He's got it in his left ear.
O'BRIEN: Yes, undoubtedly he's on IFB, so if the producer wants to wrap him now that would be the thing to do.
But he is attached to the Hubble Space Telescope by a couple of tethers and he's waiting for Linnehan to come up and help him deploy the new solar arrays which have now been successfully attached to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Check out some of these images that we've been seeing all throughout the course of the night. Isn't that a spectacular shot, 350 miles above the Earth. There is a close up. This is kind of helmet cam of what it's like to be a space walker.
And let's give you a sense of what's been going on here. This is the old solar array. Well that changed pretty quickly there. Eventually they brought it down, and that's the attach area right in there. And this is a shot -- here's a shot, a little longer version. If you take a look here, that is the old solar array. It was attached in December of '93 in the first Hubble servicing mission.
It rolls up just like a window blind and that's convenient in some sense, but also it's been difficult and temperamental because it causes vibration. It's flimsy enough that it causes some vibration when you're taking pictures of the length and distance and of faint objects that, like Hubble does, any sort of vibration is a bad thing.
That's Linnehan holding it as he brings it down towards the cargo bay. As we told you, they had some difficulty latching it down but have just succeeded in doing that. John Grunsfeld at the bottom there doing his thing.
Now here's the new version on its way to being installed. That happened sometime after the old window blind version was attached -- or taken apart. If you'll notice, Kyra, it's like a -- it's like a book. It opens up this way and that way. It's rigid and it is only two-thirds the size of the old one when fully extended and yet produces 20 percent more electrical power. So it is going to be useful in many ways to the Hubble over the course of its remaining life, at least another eight years.
Take a look at what it's like, once again, from this kind of close-up view. This is the actual attach point for the new solar array as it was attached to the Hubble. That's the Hubble's telescope there. These are the hands of Rick Linnehan and that's his pistol grip tool, which is not unlike the cordless drill or a screwdriver that you have at home. It's shielded for radiation. It has some fancy torque settings and all kinds of things like that, but aside from that, you could you know practically put a Makita sign on the side there and it's be just like what you have in your toolbox at home.
In any case, there were four attach points that went off fairly well without a hitch there. Interestingly enough, those attach points are called tangs because you know we all know that...
PHILLIPS: Tang as in the Tang the drink?
O'BRIEN: ... astronauts love Tang.
PHILLIPS: Yes, there you go.
O'BRIEN: And so they call them tangs I guess.
Anyway, so let me just give you a quick scenario here. The Hubble is in the back still, the aft section of the cargo bay. The solar array has been removed. The new one is on. It will be -- it's folded up right now so I'm not giving you a very good depiction. Eventually it'll be opened up like this. And then what will happen is they'll turn it around. It's on a lazy Susan kind of thing. And tomorrow night, another pair of astronauts will come out and do the same task on the other side of the Hubble and hopefully they won't run into any bulky latches along the way.
PHILLIPS: Cool stuff.
O'BRIEN: A little WD-30 would work pretty well, don't you think, but I don't think they use that up there.
PHILLIPS: No, I don't think...
O'BRIEN: No.
PHILLIPS: ... it would work either.
O'BRIEN: No, not so well.
PHILLIPS: A little too heavy.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
PHILLIPS: All right, Miles, thanks.
O'BRIEN: Good to see you.
PHILLIPS: Pretty cool stuff, huh, Chad?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Between men and boys...
PHILLIPS: And their toys.
MYERS: And that thing weighs about 40 pounds, Miles.
O'BRIEN: What the...
MYERS: That little model.
O'BRIEN: That little model, yes.
MYERS: Yes, I picked it up while I was there.
O'BRIEN: I got to tell you right...
PHILLIPS: And Chad was playing with it, by the way.
MYERS: I was.
O'BRIEN: This is -- this is what you would call a hangar queen. This thing is not flying anywhere because it is heavy.
MYERS: Yes, right.
O'BRIEN: It's a glorified paperweight, but for the purposes of television, I think it works just fine. What do you think, Chad?
MYERS: I do. You know but it's WD-40.
O'BRIEN: Yes, did I say WD-30?
MYERS: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Did I take 10 off?
MYERS: Yes, you did.
(LAUGHTER)
O'BRIEN: Like I said, I needed a battery swap.
MYERS: I think that WD-30 is...
O'BRIEN: I need a...
PHILLIPS: Everybody knows what he's talking about. You don't want to point those things out. He doesn't like that, Chad.
O'BRIEN: Jeez, Chad, you're killing me man.
MYERS: I think WD-30 was an Oldsmobile or something. I'm not sure.
O'BRIEN: I don't know. WD-30 or 40.
PHILLIPS: Old radio station.
O'BRIEN: Well all right.
MYERS: Fair enough.
O'BRIEN: Well sorry about that to the folks at WD-40, I apologize.
(LAUGHTER)
MYERS: Take care, man, we'll talk to you in a couple of minutes.
O'BRIEN: All right.
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