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CNN Live At Daybreak

Space Walk To Upgrade Hubble Underway

Aired March 04, 2002 - 05:02   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, the first of five space walks to upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope is going on right now.

CNN space correspondent Miles O'Brien is here to tell us all about it. We've been talking about it all weekend.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we have.

PHILLIPS: With a little worry at the beginning there.

O'BRIEN: There was a little worry. There was some concern about the space shuttle Columbia, had some problems with the cooling system. The truth of the matter is it wasn't that big a problem, as it turns out. NASA is watching those gauges very closely on that cooling system to make sure it's up to their standards. But so far so good as far as the orbiter is concerned.

And so far so good on the first of five repair space walks scheduled for this week in the overnight hours Eastern time.

Let's take a look at some live pictures right now coming down from space 350 nautical miles above us. You're looking at the end of that robotic arm at Rick Linnehan. That's him right there. And he is carrying right now the new solar arrays, one set of them, the new wings for Hubble.

Now, those solar arrays will fold out kind of like a book would, this way and that way, and they are a third again as big as the ones they replace and yet 20 percent more powerful, 20 percent more power production capability. They're right now in the process of attaching that solar array. This is the attach point right here. That will go onto here and the Hubble space telescope will at least have one new wing. Tomorrow night another pair of space walkers will do the same on the other side of the Hubble space telescope.

They are running a little bit ahead of the time line. It's about four hours into it right now, three and a half hours to be exact. And things have gone pretty smoothly. They've had a few bolts that were kind of quirky and a few difficulties with a few things here and there, but overall things have gone smoothly.

This is the end of the robotic arm. You can think of Rick Linnehan as kind of a human socket wrench. He anchors his feet right in there and uses the robotic arm for leverage to do his job. Nancy Currie is at the other end of this arm operating it, sending him up and down the four story Hubble space telescope, doing their work.

Meanwhile, his partner, John Grunsfeld, not seen in this picture, floats free. When I say free, he is tethered, of course, to the space shuttle or to the Hubble.

Let's take a look at some pictures which came down throughout the course of the night while you were sleeping. Once again, there's Linnehan. You can get a better look at the way he's anchored in there, a nice, big wide shot. The Hubble missions are the highest altitude missions for the space shuttle, 350 nautical miles, as I mentioned. About 100 nautical miles above the international space station altitude, for example.

As we take a look at some of the highlights of this, let's just look at this wide scene here and give you a sense of how business is conducted here. There's Jeff Grunsfeld down there doing his work as a free floater. As we say, I want to make sure you understand, he's always attached somehow. And there's Linnehan up there.

This device that they have right here is the old solar array. As you can see, it's rolled up, just as I said, just like a window blind. They slowly took it off and took it down to a spot in the cargo bay where it has been attached and securely fastened to the shuttle. It'll be brought back to earth and who knows, maybe it'll wind up on eBay. No, that's probably not likely.

Let's...

PHILLIPS: You'd be the one buying it.

O'BRIEN: Yes. Let's look at a close-up shot. What's interesting about this mission is this is the first Hubble repair mission where we have these helmet mounted cameras on the space walkers. We can actually watch what they're doing up close. And let me just give you a sense what this is. This is, they call this the PGT, which Kyra, of course, knows what that is.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely.

O'BRIEN: Yes, the pistol grip tool.

PHILLIPS: That's what I was just going to say.

O'BRIEN: Which is basically a cordless drill on steroids. It's shielded for radiation and has all kinds of little dial in capabilities.

Right here, that's the checklist that they refer to right on their cuff, although they have a IVA, an intravehicular space walk helper, if you will, to keep them on time line. And this is the process of tightening and loosening down the new solar array in its cargo hold in the bay. You can see that pistol grip tool doing its job, obviously making the job a little bit easier for the astronauts.

What's ahead for this space walk? Well, let's listen in to Jeff Grunsfeld, who spoke to us before he left. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN GRUNSFELD, MISSION SPECIALIST: And then we'll take out the new solar arrays, and they're quite a bit different than the old ones. Instead of being rolled up, they're actually rigid arrays and they open like a book. So we're going to take these roughly 9 x 12 foot arrays out and Rick is going to hold onto the array and Nancy Currie will lift Rick up out of the payload bay using the robotic arm with the 640 pound solar array.

In front of him, Rick is then going to steer it around towards the telescope. And then together Rick and I will insert it into the fitting onto Hubble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: All right, it may weigh 640 pounds right here if it were sitting beside us, but up there in space Rick Linnehan is lifting it with his pinky, as you see with these live pictures. Here's another angle from the end of the robotic arm of Rick Linnehan and the 640 pound brand new solar array for the Hubble space telescope.

The first of five space walks. We're going to be here all week and so will you.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, talk a little. Educate me here a little bit.

O'BRIEN: I will try.

PHILLIPS: The Hubble, the significance to astronauts, to scientists. What does this mean for all of us?

O'BRIEN: Well, I mean it's answered so many profound questions it's hard to sum it all up quickly. But basically, first of all, it was the first device ever to determine beyond a shadow of the doubt that black holes exist. And then not only did it determine that they exist, it discovered that they're everywhere, that the universe is pockmarked with black holes.

It's taken images deep, deep, deep back in time to the age of less than a billion years ago, a billion years of the universe, the very, you might call it the day care center for the universe, the toddler galaxies and given scientists an idea of how these galaxies formed.

It's also given people some suggestion that there might be other solar systems out there with earth-like planets on them, with an atmosphere, perhaps offering some tantalizing clues to the possibility of life existing elsewhere.

That's just a couple of examples.

They are very profound fundamental questions. The program, when you take it out over the 20 year period, is a $6 billion program. A lot of people would tell you that's a waste of money. But when you get to the very fundamental questions of how it all began and where we came from, some would say that's worth the money.

PHILLIPS: I think it's worth the money there. What else would you do? What else would you talk about for so many hours?

O'BRIEN: I'd be out of a job, yes.

PHILLIPS: There you go. We'd be in trouble.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: All right, Miles O'Brien, thanks so much.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome.

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