Lockheed to Help Fix Hubble : Aerospace: The company was awarded two contracts worth $267 million. It will assist in the 1993 mission to rescue the space telescope.

By JAMES F. PELTZ

Sept. 8, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Lockheed Corp. has won two additional contracts, totaling $267 million, for work on the problem-plagued Hubble Space Telescope that’s in orbit around the Earth.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, along with Calabasas-based Lockheed and the Hubble’s other contractors, hopes to fix the telescope’s problems with a space shuttle mission in December, 1993.

The two seven-year contracts were awarded last week to the company’s Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. unit, based in Sunnyvale. One contract, for $147 million, calls for Lockheed to help with the rescue mission. The other, for $120 million, extends Lockheed’s regular service and maintenance of the $2-billion telescope.

Lockheed was a principal designer and assembler of the telescope’s components. Among other things, it made the “support systems module” that contains the Hubble’s on-board communications, command and power systems. Lockheed flight controllers also operate the telescope from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

“With responsibilities for operations, systems engineering and software maintenance and updates, we basically help make sure the observatory works properly,” Tom Dougherty, Lockheed’s program manager for the Hubble, said in a statement.

But since its deployment from a space shuttle on April 25, 1990, the 13-ton Hubble has had several maladies.

The telescope, which is supposed to give astronomers an unprecedented view of the universe’s outer edges, has a flawed primary mirror that blurs its vision. Also, vibrating solar panels threaten the Hubble’s long-term power supply, and two of its six gyroscopes--which keep the Hubble steadily focused--are broken.

NASA plans to correct those problems with the space-shuttle mission, in which astronauts would reach the Hubble’s 370-mile altitude above Earth, grab the 43-foot telescope, secure it to the shuttle’s bay and fit the Hubble with new parts.

Even before the Hubble’s problems were detected, NASA had planned to use the shuttle to refurbish and upgrade the telescope on a regular basis, roughly every three years.

Lockheed, which will have about 150 employees working with the Hubble-servicing team at Goddard, said it has already reduced some of the jitter in the telescope’s solar panels by tinkering with the Hubble’s computer software.

Schaeffer Magnetics Inc. in Chatsworth, which built the 57 motors and actuators that control the mirrors, antennas and other equipment on the Hubble, also is busy preparing for the repair mission. Under a $700,000 contract, Schaeffer is making new actuators and some other replacement parts for the telescope.