Note to Editors/News Directors: N99-116

Scientists and engineers who will play key roles in the next servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope will conduct briefings, hardware demonstrations and tours of HST related facilities on Nov. 18 at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The media workshop will begin at 10 a.m. in Bldg. 29, site of the world’s largest clean room where Hubble hardware is prepared for flight.

Key members of the Hubble team, including Dr. John Campbell, HST Program Manager, Dr. David Leckrone, HST senior scientist, and Frank Cepollina, HST project manager for flight systems and servicing, will be on hand to discuss the objectives of the mission and describe the components that are being replaced. They will also show and demonstrate some of the tools and hardware that astronauts will use to service the Hubble Space Telescope during the ten-day STS-103 mission set for launch next month. Engineering models of the Hubble’s gyroscopes, astronaut tools, computers and other hardware being replaced on the mission will be on display.

Following the briefings, reporters will be taken to the Bldg. 29 High Bay where full-scale models of the Space Shuttle and Hubble Space Telescope are located. Here engineers will describe and demonstrate the new thermal blankets that will be installed on the telescope using a high fidelity mockup used to train the actual STS-103 crew. 

At 12:00 noon, Preston Burch, HST Operations and Ground Systems Project Manager, will take reporters through the Space Telescope Operations Control Center (STOCC). Flight controllers monitor the Hubble’s condition and perform maneuvers of the telescope from the Goddard STOCC. During the mission, this facility will be the focal point for controlling the telescope during the servicing mission while astronauts perform their delicate hardware replacements.

Because space is limited, we are asking reporters to RSVP with the public affairs office no later than 12 Noon on Wednesday, Nov. 17. Please call Goddard Public Affairs at 301-286-8955 so that we can arrange for clearance. Reporters should arrive at the Goddard Main Gate on Greenbelt Road no later than 9:30 a.m. We will provide transportation to and from the Bldg. 29 clean room. Please contact us if you need directions to Goddard.

STS-103 is scheduled to be launched about Dec. 6 on a ten-day mission to replace the Hubble’s gyroscopes, upgrade other telescope subsystems and perform scheduled maintenance. Astronauts will perform four Extravehicular Activity (spacewalks) during the mission.

For more information on the mission, check out the Hubble Project website at: http://hubble.gsfc.nasa.gov