14 DAY TRIAL // After a successful series of five back-to-back spacewalks, performed over five very intense days, the astronauts aboard Atlantis released the Hubble Space Telescope back into its orbit, and moved their own shuttle in a lower orbit, preparing for the atmospheric reentry process. This is scheduled to take place on Friday, and will conclude a very successful 11-day repair mission, from which the most famous telescope has emerged more efficient and better than ever before. According to mission control, there are very little causes for concern as far as the craft's heat shields go.
Despite some minor concerns at the beginning of the mission, when a few dents were found in four of Atlantis' heat shield thermal insulating tiles, engineers in Houston decided that the problem was minor, and that it did not pose any kind of threat to a safe reentry for the space shuttle. The second heat shield check that the astronauts performed has become standard procedure whenever an orbiter flies on a mission, since the Columbia disaster of 2003. In addition, for the specific case of the STS-125 mission, the procedure was also very necessary on account of the fact that the craft floated in Hubble's orbit for more than five days.
The 350-mile (563-kilometer) -high orbit the renewed observatory inhabits is littered with space junk, ranging from small chips of paint to bolts and other satellite shell or engine parts. In the event they would strike the shuttle, they could easily rip its hull wide open, on account of the fact that they are traveling at extremely high speeds. Therefore, Houston mission planners said, it was imperative for the seven astronauts aboard the shuttle to check and see if small fragments of debris or micro-asteroids had hit the heat shield while the two craft were traveling together in orbit.
"There wasn't anything specific that anybody was worried about. The only sigh of relief you're going to get from me is when the wheels are on the ground. Until we get them home, you still have that anxiety in your heart," Space quotes Tony Ceccacci as saying during a press conference, held at the Johnson Space Center. He is the lead flight director for the mission. He added that the sensors on Atlantis' underbelly detected one impact during the Hubble repairs, but that the hit was very low in intensity, and that it did not cause any damage.