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From: starrfie@hydro.la.asu.edu (Sumner Starrfield) Subject: HSt Date: Tue, 25 May 93 15:22:17 MST Mark Hess/Jim Cast Headquarters, Washington, D.C. May 25, 1993 (Phone: 202/358-1778) RELEASE: 93-96 HUBBLE SERVICING MISSION STUDY COMPLETED A task force established by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin to review plans for the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission concluded that, "the mission is achievable." This conclusion was driven by the fact that the spacecraft and most of its subsystems were designed for on-orbit maintenance. The Task Force on the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission, chartered in late January, reviewed all aspects of the first servicing mission which is currently scheduled for December 1993. Dr. Joseph F. Shea was Chairman of the task force. "We were asked to arrive at a judgement as to the likelihood of success of the repair and servicing mission," said Shea. "In our opinion, we think the mission is achievable." The task force pointed out, however, that the mission is complex and will require more EVA (spacewalk) time than any mission to date. Given this complexity, the task force recommended that a second HST servicing mission be planned 6 to 12 months after the STS-61 flight to handle tasks that might not be completed during the first mission or respond to failures that occur in the intervening months. Shea said planning and management changes, which have taken place over the past few months, will improve the likelihood of success. "We support the appointment of a Mission Director, and believe that such a position, with authority and resources, is necessary if the mission is to be carried out with confidence," Shea said. The task force report also concluded that a full end-to-end simulation of the EVA in the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., which is currently in the planning stage, is "essential to a successful mission." "There are some areas, like schedule, where we still have some concerns," Shea said. "We think the timelines for the EVAs are very tight and some of the hardware is not fully assembled. But we were very pleased to see that NASA extended the mission duration and the number of EVAs for the flight."
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