Shuttle crew chases Hubble telescope for repairs

[May 13, 2009]  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- The space shuttle Atlantis is chasing down the Hubble Space Telescope to grab it for repairs.

Atlantis astronaut Megan McArthur will use the shuttle's robot arm to grasp the school bus-sized telescope Wednesday afternoon and place it in the shuttle's payload bay.

Other astronauts will go on five spacewalks over the next week to fix it.

This repair mission is especially risky. A rescue shuttle is on standby for the first time ever because of the debris-littered orbit of Hubble.

On Tuesday, astronauts uncovered a 21-inch stretch of nicks on Atlantis. But NASA said the damage did not appear to be serious.

Unlike other space flights, the astronauts can't reach the international space station because it is in a different orbit than the telescope.

[Associated Press]

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