The space shuttle Columbia released a rejuvenated Hubble Space Telescope on Saturday 365 miles above Earth, sending the orbiting observatory away after extensive service replacements.
The crew left Hubble after almost a week of being docked together as teams of astronauts conducted five spacewalks in five days to renovate and repair the 12-year-old space telescope.
Army Lt. Col. Nancy Currie, the main operator of the shuttle’s robotic arm, plucked Hubble from its work station on Columbia and released it Saturday evening while over the Atlantic Ocean. The shuttle then backed away from the 24,000-pound observatory.
The service mission, the fourth to Hubble since its launching in 1990, leaves the $2 billion telescope with the capability to peer into corners of the universe previously hidden from human eyes.
Two teams of astronauts took turns changing Hubble inside and out.
The last of the original cameras, a malfunctioning power control unit and the original solar arrays were removed and replaced with a new main camera, a new power shunting unit and improved solar panels.
The new equipment passed initial tests, but project managers said it would be weeks before they could test Hubble’s expanded capabilities.
