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| Astronauts begin Hubble repairs | Astronauts begin Hubble repairs |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Two shuttle astronauts have begun the first of five spacewalks to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. | Two shuttle astronauts have begun the first of five spacewalks to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. |
| John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel left the airlock of the Atlantis orbiter just before 1300 GMT, to work on tasks that could take almost seven hours. | |
| The pair will try to fit a new instrument, the Wide Field Camera 3, which will allow Hubble to see deeper into space than ever before. | The pair will try to fit a new instrument, the Wide Field Camera 3, which will allow Hubble to see deeper into space than ever before. |
| They will also exchange a data processing computer. | They will also exchange a data processing computer. |
| Hubble is currently operating with no back-up for this unit and without it, the telescope cannot send its wonderful images to Earth. | Hubble is currently operating with no back-up for this unit and without it, the telescope cannot send its wonderful images to Earth. |
| In addition, Grunsfeld and Feustel will fix a mechanism that would enable a robotic spacecraft to capture Hubble at some future date. This would ensure there is a safe means to de-orbit the observatory at the end of its life. | In addition, Grunsfeld and Feustel will fix a mechanism that would enable a robotic spacecraft to capture Hubble at some future date. This would ensure there is a safe means to de-orbit the observatory at the end of its life. |
| Space shuttle Atlantis met up with Hubble on Wednesday while both were circling the Earth some 560km (350 miles) above the ground. | Space shuttle Atlantis met up with Hubble on Wednesday while both were circling the Earth some 560km (350 miles) above the ground. |
| Atlantis' robotic arm was used to grab hold of Hubble. The telescope was pulled down on to a bench that can turn and tilt to give the spacewalking astronauts easy access to its system bays. | Atlantis' robotic arm was used to grab hold of Hubble. The telescope was pulled down on to a bench that can turn and tilt to give the spacewalking astronauts easy access to its system bays. |
| The shuttle launched from from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Monday. It is due to return to Earth on Friday of next week. | The shuttle launched from from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on Monday. It is due to return to Earth on Friday of next week. |