Shuttle Crew Toasts Telescope’s Release

As a stronger, smarter Hubble Space Telescope drifted farther away Wednesday, the shuttle Discovery’s astronauts couldn’t wait to get back home Friday to celebrate their service mission.

“I’ll buy for the whole crew, and they’re going to take me up on that,” chief spacewalker Mark Lee said as his six crew mates cheered. “Up here, we’ve got some orange mango drink and some lemonade, but that’s about as stiff as it gets. So I’m ready for a margarita.”

Discovery is scheduled for a rare nighttime landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The $2-billion Hubble observatory, anchored for nearly a week in the shuttle’s open cargo bay, was set free to rousing music after being modernized and repaired in five wearying spacewalks, conducted one night after another.

“It’s been sitting in the mother’s nest in the shuttle quite comfortable, and now our little baby’s out on its own,” said NASA’s chief Hubble scientist, Ed Weiler.

The orbiting Hubble will undergo an eight- to 10-week checkout by ground controllers before it can start gazing deeper into the universe with its new infrared eyes and two-dimensional imaging sensors.

“These are all instruments built in 1990s with today’s technology and far surpass anything we have on the old space telescope,” Weiler said. “We just don’t know what we’re going to see with these new instruments.”

The first images are to be released in May.

“Thanks to you . . . the window on the universe is about to be open just a little bit more,” NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin told the crew.

Hubble and Discovery parted company 385 miles above Africa’s western coast, the highest orbit ever for the telescope thanks to a gradual, gentle lift on the shuttle.

It was the second service call to the Hubble, which was put in orbit in 1990.

In 1993, spacewalking astronauts fixed the Hubble’s blurred vision, caused by a defective mirror.

The latest mission was nearly flawless.

“From my viewpoint, we did more than we set out to do,” John Campbell, a Hubble manager, said. “I’d say we’re 110% successful.”

One big surprise was peeling insulation on Hubble’s sun-drenched side.

The astronauts covered the six gaping holes with jury-rigged patches during their fifth spacewalk, added specifically to repair the insulation.

In 1999, astronauts will return to equip Hubble with a new camera, computer, thermal insulation and solar wings. NASA hopes to keep operating Hubble until at least 2005.