The fifth and final spacewalk to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope has ended

This concludes the upgrade operation, and if no last-minute malfunctions are detected in the device activation experiments, the telescope will be released into orbit and the Atlantis shuttle will land on Friday

This evening, Monday, May 18, 2009 at 22:22 p.m., the fifth and final spacewalk of the STS-125 mission of the space shuttle Atlantis, to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, ended.

This time the sale lasted seven hours and two minutes. During it, astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel installed two battery arrays, each of the battery arrays weighs 460 pounds, which is about 200 kg, and contains three batteries that provide electrical power that supports the operation of the Hubble Space Telescope during the night part of its orbit. This is the completion of a mission that began with the second spacewalk.

The astronauts also removed and replaced the fine guidance sensors. These sensors are used to provide information about the direction in which you want to point the telescope for the purpose of photography, and are also used as a scientific instrument in their own right, to determine the relative position of the Hubble and the movements of the stars.

Finally, the astronauts replaced three thermal covers that protect the telescope's electronic devices located in compartments 5 and 8, located at the front of the telescope in the direction of its orbit. These covers tend to break down in space conditions. The cover of compartment (bay) #8 was supposed to be done on the fourth spacewalk the day before, but the crew did not have time to replace it due to additional work on a stuck screw.

Before the return of the astronauts to the cabin of the space shuttle Atlantis, Grunsfeld said: "We were partners in a great adventure. Grief is not just a satellite, it is humanity's way of continuing the search for knowledge." He thanked the many people and teams who have cared for Hubble over the years. "In this mission we will try to do things that people thought were impossible." He said referring to some of the repairs that required the ability to improvise from the planners and the performers i.e. the astronauts. "We achieved this and we wish Hubble success in the future." Concluded.

In the coming days, the ground command personnel of the telescope will perform experiments and when they are finished, they will release it from the cargo deck of the space shuttle, to continue its journey in space, which is expected to continue until the middle of the next decade. Then an unmanned spacecraft will reach him and guide him to a controlled crash in the Pacific Ocean.

Atlantis is scheduled to land on Friday, May 22 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.