| Popis: |
Close encounters of the third kind are encounters with contact. Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been visited four times by Space Shuttle crews — including several former astronomers — for exchange of failed or degraded components, or installation of higher performance subsystems and scientific instruments. Following a description of the servicing philosophy and a brief narrative of the four encounters so far, this paper describes the challenge of working on Hubble spacewalking, with thick gloves, and in the absence of gravity where everything tends to float away if not held or retained in some manner ... This paper also attempts to detail some of the reasons for the remarkable success rate of these on-orbit interventions that have kept the orbiting observatory healthy and remarkably productive over more than twelve years. |
