Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company’s Missiles and
Space Operations, Sunnyvale, Calif., has received a contract
modification valued at $123 million from NASA’s Goddard
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., for work to be
performed in support of Servicing Mission 4, the final
servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Servicing
Mission 4 is scheduled for February 2004.
Under terms of the contract, Lockheed will be responsible
for implementing the Servicing Mission 4 and for post-
servicing-mission observatory-verification efforts to ensure
the newly installed equipment is working properly and the
telescope is ready to resume its scientific observations.
Lockheed and its subcontractors will be responsible for
designing, building, testing and integrating the new systems
into Hubble, including new batteries, new gyroscopes and a
new Aft Shroud Cooling System. The new cooling system will
carry heat away from scientific instruments and allow the
instruments to operate better at lower temperatures. It also
will allow multiple instruments to operate simultaneously,
helping the science team maintain the program’s high
productivity.
Hubble’s remaining original Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) also
will be changed out during the flight. Hubble has three of
these sensors, which are systematically refurbished and
upgraded in “round-robin” fashion, one per servicing
mission. By the conclusion of SM4 all three FGSs will have
been brought up to optimum condition.
Lockheed also will be responsible for the integration of two
new science Instruments to be installed on the SM 4 flight:
the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera
Three.
The Hubble Space Telescope Program is managed by Goddard for
the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters,
Washington.
More information about the Hubble Space Telescope can be
found at:
http://hubble.nasa.gov
