New Scientist Astronauts ready for risky Hubble overhaul

12:38 26 February 02

Space shuttle Comlumbia will launch at 1148 GMT on Thursday on a risky mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope.
This will involve the first shutdown of the space telescope's power supply during orbit. NASA is confident, but not certain, that it will come back on.
"It kind of violates a long standing policy in the space business that if something's working well, you don't turn it off and just hope it comes back on," said Ed Weiler, NASA's head of space science.
The 12-year-old telescope's imaging systems are functioning well, but its power generation unit is not working at full capacity.