The crowd of scientists watching on the big screen in the auditorium of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore went silent Thursday when it appeared a single stuck bolt might foil NASA's plans to install a powerful new camera on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Astronaut Drew Feustel had tried and failed to budge it with his power wrench. If he couldn't muscle it into submission with elbow grease alone, the 15-year-old camera would have to be reconnected. Worse, its replacement - the $150 million Wide Field Camera 3, packing more than ten times the "discovery power" of the old camera - would have to be repacked for the ride home.
"If you needed any proof that no task in space is routine, this is it," said Mario Livio, a senior scientist at the institute.
The tool-time drama was beamed down from orbit during the first of five spacewalks planned for the coming days as astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis labor to upgrade and repair the 19-year-old telescope. It is the fifth and final servicing mission to Hubble, and scientists' last chance to ensure they get the most science possible from the observatory's final years.
Happily for Hubble and for science, Feustel cranked his wrench and the stubborn bolt quickly gave way. "I think I got it," he radioed back to Earth. "It definitely turned."
Gasps, whoops and applause filled the auditorium and astronomers began breathing again. For those who have worked with the old Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 since its installation by astronauts in 1993, it was a time for chocolate cake and champagne in plastic cups.
John Biretta, technical lead for the WFPC2 team at the institute, clinked two champagne bottles together to get the crowd's attention and raised his cup. "A toast to WFPC2 (pronounced Wiff-Pick Two), and 15 years of exciting science," he said. "I hope the Wide Field Camera 3 can match that."
On Friday, the crew is scheduled to replace Hubble's batteries and the gyroscopes it needs to pivot in space and steady its gaze on distant stars and galaxies. Built with six gyros, the telescope has just three working units left. Three was thought to be the minimum, but as failures accumulated and servicing missions were delayed, engineers taught themselves to operate the observatory with two, sparing the last just in case.
