Mar 9 2002

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Crew of Space Shuttle Columbia STS-109 finished installing several new instruments on the 12-year-old HST and sent the observatory back into orbit. During a series of five spacewalks conducted in as many days, Columbia’s crew had installed a new power-shunting unit, an improved solar panel, and a cooling unit that would restore the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) to operational status. In addition, Columbia’s crew had installed a new main camera, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which NASA had designed to give the telescope unprecedented ability to observe distant galaxies and other objects. (Warren E. Leary, “Hubble Returning to Mission Able To Peer Deeper Into Space,” New York Times, 10 March 2002.)

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