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HOUSTON, Texas: US astronauts aboard the shuttle Atlantis bid the Hubble telescope a wistful farewell on Tuesday, ending a gruelling revamp to equip the aging stargazer to explore the cosmos for years to come.
Astronaut Megan McArthur, the robot arm operator, released Hubble off the shuttle's right wing after carefully hoisting it out of the shuttle's cargo bay, letting it sail away to continue its ground-breaking observations and make more potentially significant discoveries.
The separation marked the end of NASA's human missions to the 19-year-old but beloved Hubble, whose spectacular images have helped broaden humankind's understanding of the universe as it peers ever deeper into the cosmos.
Tuesday's farewell lacked the drama of the mission's ambitious spacewalks, which were punctuated by stuck bolts, a power tool with a dead battery, an ill-fitting space suit boot and a damaged glove among other frustrations.
Instead, it featured the passion and resolve that dragged most of the five daily spacewalks into overtime to overcome the obstacles.
"Looking back at this mission, it has been an incredible journey. I think it has demonstrated the triumph that humans can have when they overcome challenges," Atlantis commander Scott Altman reminisced with Mission Control.
"Not everything went as well as planned, but we planned a way to work around everything. And that's the thing about Hubble - we've done it together, and now Hubble can continue on its own, exploring the cosmos."
A previous NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe, had cancelled plans for a Hubble repair mission in the aftermath of the 2003 shuttle Columbia tragedy, fearing the flight would be too risky.
When Congress joined the public outcry, NASA re-embraced the mission with a new administrator and an elaborate strategy to have a second shuttle, Endeavour, standing by with a small crew during the flight to launch a rescue if necessary.
"There are folks who thought we could not do it. They told us you are too aggressive," said NASA's Tony Ceccacci, who supervised from Mission Control as the lead flight director.
"We showed them that with tremendous teamwork, determination, desire and the proper preparation and training, we can overcome any obstacle thrown at us. I don't want to say we told you so, but we told you so."
NASA is poised to retire its shuttle fleet next year, leaving the space telescope to face a solitary future in space.
With that in mind, the Atlantis astronauts achieved each of the mission's objectives. They equipped Hubble with a pair of new science instruments and repaired two others that had been sidelined by electrical problems.
They installed new gyroscopes and batteries to fortify the precision pointing and power systems. They applied stainless steel patches to the outside of the telescope where solar radiation had blemished the soft exterior.
The handiwork has pushed the telescope to a new scientific summit, a perch from which astronomers can search for the earliest galaxies, unravel the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter and chart the planet forming processes under way around other stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
"It's show time for us, now," said Eric Smith, NASA's Hubble programme manager.
"We got everything we asked for. We will have a great mission for years to come. I'm really looking forward to what comes next."
After Hubble's release, the Atlantis crew manoeuvred their spacecraft to a lower altitude, where the threat from a collision with an accumulation of satellite and rocket debris is lower.
Using cameras and lasers fitted to an inspection boom on the shuttle's robot arm, the astronauts scanned the heatshielding of the wings and nose for evidence of impact damage before they prepare Atlantis to head back to Earth.
Mission managers should have the results of the inspection on Wednesday. The astronauts will attempt to head back to Earth on Friday, touching down at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre after an 11-day flight.
The landing has been moved up to 10:01 am (1401 GMT) to lower the odds of stormy weather forcing the landing to be rescheduled.
The shuttle astronauts have earned some off-duty time before they land, but they will host a news conference on Wednesday at 10:26 am (1426 GMT). - AFP/de
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