Hubble's lens cover opens to universe

The Hubble Space Telescope tipped its hat to the universe early today, responding to commands from ground controllers that opened a large lens cover and admitted star light for the first time.

The $1.55 billion space telescope's 10-foot-wide aluminum aperture door swung open at 8:46 a.m., Houston time.

The signal from NASA's Space Telescope Operations Control Center in Greenbelt, Md., exposed the observatory's sophisticated optics, cameras and instruments to deep space.

But as they did Thursday, the Greenbelt controllers experienced communications difficulties with the Hubble that delayed the door's opening by more than two hours.

The recovery from the problems is expected to mean a lengthy delay in plans to snap the first picture sometime next week, said Steve Terry of NASA, one of the observatory's directors of orbital verification.

And the door opening caused an immediate partial failure of the Hubble's gyroscope-driven pointing system.

The failure sent the telescope into what controller's call a "safe" mode, essentially immobilizing the Hubble so that it will not stare directly at the sun, damaging its sensitive optics and scientific instruments.

The five astronauts aboard the shuttle Discovery stood by at a distance of 45 miles from the Hubble while the command was sent.

"The Hubble is open for business," Mission Control told Discovery's astronauts. "A lot of people had a lot to do with it,"was the reply from Discovery Commander Loren J. Shriver.

The relay of the good news to the crew had been briefly delayed because they had relinquished use of their satellite communications network to the Hubble's controllers at the time the door opened.

If the door had failed to respond to today's command, mission commander Loren Shriver and pilot Charles Bolden were prepared to maneuver Discovery along side of the telescope on Saturday.

Mission specialist Steve Hawley would have grappled the 25,000 pound telescope with the robot arm, while colleagues Bruce McCandless and Kathryn Sullivan performed a space walk to manually remove the lens cover.

The successful command marked a formal end to the Discovery crew's responsibilities for the observatory's deployment.

And it means they can plan to end their successful five-day mission on Sunday with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. at 8:49 a.m.

The astronauts had been awakened at 1:30 a.m. Houston time to the sounds of the Beach Boys' song, "Kokomo.' "For Max Q's keyboard, that's the way that song should really be done," Mission Control radioed to Hawley, a member of the all-astronaut band called Max Q. "Your next practice is Sunday evening in the gym, don't be late.' Max Q is a NASA acronym for the point in the shuttle's ascent when the aerodynamic pressure is at its greatest point.

"That sounds just like the way we do it," replied Hawley. "If you get us home, I'll go to practice.' On Thursday, the Goddard controllers had cheered after they re-established contact with the telescope through its main antennas.

Al Boggess, Hubble project scientist at Goddard, told the Associated Press the controllers' lack of experience with the new satellite was part of the problem.

"This probably won't be the last time we have a problem," he said Thursday. "We'll keep working at it until we have all these things that need to be done, done. We'll get them right.' The space shuttle lifted off early Tuesday and its crew deployed the Hubble on Wednesday afternoon, though it nearly required a spacewalk by Sullivan and McCandless.

Though the telescope peered into the universe for the first time today, it will not send back its first photo until sometime next week when engineers can complete instrument calibration and focusing tests.

And even as it transmits its first image, a well known star cluster in the southern hemisphere, technicians will be adjusting the focus of the optics.

Top space agency officials have cautioned the public not to expect the sharply focused images that will obtain after a check out period that may last as long as eight months.

Orbiting high above the distorting influences of the Earth's atmosphere, the space telescope is expected to widen the observable universe by 350 times.

It should see seven times as far with 10 times the clarity of the best ground-based telescopes. The observatory will spot objects 50 times fainter than those visible from the Earth, say its designers.

Scientists plan to use the powerful new telescope like a time machine, sneaking up on the light that first raced from the explosive Big Bang many theorists believe created the universe 15 to 20 billion years ago.

Among other things, astronomers hope to learn how rapidly the universe is expanding and whether it will one day begin to slowly contract.

They hope to confirm the existence of mysterious black holes and search for the presence of planets circling nearby stars.

The telescope's mission is expected to last at least 15 years. Space shuttle crews plan to revisit it periodically to boost it to higher altitudes and to service its scientific instruments.