Mission to repair Hubble telescope

Astronauts are to make a series of space repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) over the next week, to enhance its stunning astronomical capabilities even further.

The Space Shuttle was due to take off yesterday on its way to the second repair mission for the HST, first launched in 1990. The astronauts on board will carry out at least four spacewalks in order to replace some of the older observation instruments and install state-of-the-art systems that will give even better views of the origins of the universe. They have been training for the mission for two years, carrying out the work on full-sized underwater mock-ups (above), to simulate the weightlessness of space.