Astronauts Spacewalk to Work

Two shuttle astronauts ventured out into open space early Monday to install a new, stronger solar wing on the Hubble Space Telescope.

John Grunsfeld and Richard Linnehan emerged from space shuttle Columbia high above Africa, in the first of five excursions planned this week to enhance Hubble. “Oh, wow, beautiful view,” Grunsfeld said.

“It’s time to go outside and turn some wrenches,” Mission Control told the astronauts following their successful capture of the telescope.

The crew latched onto Hubble on Sunday and watched with relief as its 40-foot solar wings neatly rolled up like window shades.

NASA was unsure whether Hubble’s electricity-generating solar panels would retract properly, given eight years of harsh space exposure. The astronauts were prepared to toss them overboard if they got stuck.

“It was quite cool to watch the solar arrays retract so smoothly on the big screen down here,” Mission Control told the crew.

Grunsfeld, the chief telescope repairman, was thrilled to encounter Hubble again. “It’s great to see an old friend,” said the spaceman, who was on the last servicing mission in 1999.

Astronaut Nancy Currie plucked the 24,500-pound, 43-foot observatory from orbit, using Columbia’s robot arm. She moved in slowly for the grab as the spacecraft flew 350 miles above the Pacific at 17,500 mph.

One hour later, Hubble was locked down in Columbia’s payload bay.

The focus of Monday morning’s spacewalk was the replacement of one solar wing. The other wing will be replaced during Tuesday’s excursion by two other astronauts.