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| Servicing Mission 4 | |
|---|---|
| Name | Servicing Mission 4 |
| Mission type | Space shuttle servicing mission |
| Operator | National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Atlantis / Space Shuttle Discovery (planned), Hubble Space Telescope |
| Launch date | May 2009 (implemented) |
| Crew size | 7 (executed) |
| Landing date | May 2009 (executed) |
Servicing Mission 4 was the final planned human servicing visit to the Hubble Space Telescope during the era of the Space Shuttle program. The mission followed a string of earlier servicing missions involving Space Shuttle Columbia, Space Shuttle Endeavour, Space Shuttle Discovery, and Space Shuttle Atlantis, and it sought to extend Hubble's scientific productivity for the 21st century. Planning for the mission involved stakeholders including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the European Space Agency, and multiple academic institutions such as the Space Telescope Science Institute and the California Institute of Technology.
Following the launch of Hubble in 1990 using the Space Shuttle Discovery, a sequence of corrective and enhancement missions—most notably Servicing Mission 1 and Servicing Mission 2—addressed optical and instrument issues that impacted missions like Hubble Deep Field observations and studies led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The rationale for the final mission drew on lessons from Challenger disaster and Columbia disaster recovery efforts, debates within the United States Congress, and risk assessments by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Advocates from institutions such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of California, Berkeley emphasized the telescope's contributions to programs including Dark Energy Survey-related work and follow-up observations for the Kepler mission. Critics pointed to the costs and shuttle risks discussed during Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident-era reforms and later policy decisions influenced by the Vision for Space Exploration.
The mission aimed to restore and upgrade capabilities by installing new instruments and systems drawn from collaborations with organizations like Ball Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, and the European Space Agency. Primary objectives included replacing aging components such as the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 predecessor systems with next-generation hardware, upgrading power and data-handling subsystems, and installing the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. Science goals prioritized deeper imaging for programs at the Space Telescope Science Institute and spectroscopy support for investigators at Princeton University and University of Cambridge affiliated consortia. A contingency objective was to ensure the safety of astronauts from agencies like Canadian Space Agency and international partners during complex extravehicular activitys.
Planning involved extensive coordination among the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Johnson Space Center, and contractors such as Northrop Grumman and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Mission planners used simulations derived from previous missions like the Hubble Servicing Mission 3A and incorporated redesigns motivated by findings from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and policy direction from the Office of Management and Budget. Training included analogs at facilities used by crews from European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency and rehearsals at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. Hardware acceptance, systems integration, and observation planning were coordinated with the Space Telescope Science Institute which distributed observing time to investigators from institutions including Stanford University and University of Chicago.
Flight hardware encompassed flight elements of the Space Shuttle Atlantis orbiter, mission-specific tools developed by Honeywell International and TAS subcontractors, spare parts provided by suppliers such as TRW Inc., and replacement science instruments from partners including Ball Aerospace and Lockheed Martin. The crew comprised astronaut-scientists and mission specialists trained at the Johnson Space Center with prior flight experience related to International Space Station assembly and prior shuttle flights by veterans from Expedition crews; many had ties to research groups at University of Colorado Boulder and California Institute of Technology.
Extravehicular activity (EVA) plans built on techniques proven by earlier EVAs during missions like STS-61 and STS-125 rehearsals. Major repair tasks included replacement and upgrade of instruments—the installation of the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph—and the servicing of gyroscopes, batteries, and thermal protection hardware. Tools and task designs were reviewed by panels including representatives from Space Telescope Science Institute, Goddard Space Flight Center, and university instrument teams from University of Arizona and Johns Hopkins University. Each EVA was choreographed to mitigate risks informed by analyses from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and operational experience from International Space Station EVA procedures.
The mission schedule followed the cadence of shuttle launch processing at Kennedy Space Center with payload integration and weather contingencies coordinated with the Federal Aviation Administration and United States Air Force tracking assets. Once in orbit, the timeline allocated rendezvous and capture operations consistent with procedures from past shuttle rendezvous such as STS-31 and STS-103, sequential EVAs to implement swaps and repairs, on-orbit instrument checkout with uplinks to the Goddard Space Flight Center, and phased deorbit preparations leading to runway landing at Kennedy Space Center or alternate sites such as Edwards Air Force Base under diversion scenarios. Post-mission tasks included data validation by teams at the Space Telescope Science Institute and publication of early science results by investigators from institutions including Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The mission extended the operational lifetime and scientific productivity of the Hubble Space Telescope, enabling new programs at the Space Telescope Science Institute and follow-up studies for missions like Spitzer Space Telescope and Kepler. Legacy outcomes included technology demonstrations benefiting proposals at California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published results in journals associated with institutions such as Princeton University and University of California, Berkeley, and policy lessons cited by the National Research Council and decision-makers in subsequent programs including the James Webb Space Telescope partnership. The mission remained a capstone event connecting the histories of the Space Shuttle program, the Hubble Space Telescope project, and the community of astronomers at institutions worldwide.
Category:Space Shuttle missions Category:Hubble Space Telescope