Hubble Mission Countdown Gets Under Way

The countdown began Sunday for the Hubble space telescope repair mission, considered by many to be NASA’s biggest challenge in space since the Apollo moon landings.

The space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to lift off on the 11-day flight before dawn Wednesday.

Hubble program managers and scientists were thrilled to be this close to correcting the telescope’s fuzzy vision and other problems.

“This is a very, very exciting mission,” shuttle test director Mike Leinbach said. “It’s been billed as one of the most important missions NASA’s had in a long, long time, and we’re all anxious for it to go.”

Endeavour’s crew will go out at least five times to work on Hubble after the bus-sized telescope is anchored in the shuttle cargo bay.

The seven astronauts assigned to the flight inspected the bay for sharp edges Sunday and got their last look on the ground at the Hubble replacement parts.

Endeavour holds 11 parts to replace or aid failed or failing telescope equipment. The shuttle also contains more than 280 tools for the spacewalkers.

The $3-billion Hubble program has been unable to attain all the science promised by officials when the telescope was launched in 1990. A manufacturing error left the 94 1/2-inch primary mirror slightly too flat along the edge, blurring Hubble’s view.