NASA to check Hubble optical devices for grit

The optical devices that astronauts plan to install on the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope next month will be removed from a launch pad clean room and checked for evidence of a gritty contaminant discovered this week, NASA said Tuesday.

It was unclear precisely how the disruption will affect plans to launch the shuttle Endeavour and a team of astronauts on an 11-day repair mission Dec. 1.

But the space agency was hopeful the unplanned procedure would not force a launch delay.

"We have laid out a schedule that says we could have it back in (Endeavour) by the 16th of November, which means we could still make the 1st of December," said Mitch Varnes, a spokesman at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Space agency officials have said they will likely wait until next year to launch the difficult mission if they cannot lift off by Dec. 10.

Workers found a gritty substance in the clean room on Saturday after high winds from a cold front that moved through the Cape Canaveral, Fla., area buffeted the launch complex.

The affected components are the Wide Field Planetary Camera II and Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, or COSTAR, the two large instruments developed to compensate for the optical flaws discovered after the observatory was launched in 1990.

Both the planetary camera and COSTAR were scheduled to be transferred from the launch pad clean room into Endeavour's payload bay on Tuesday. Instead, the repair hardware will be removed to a processing hangar later this week, examined and, if necessary, cleaned.

The optical devices, a new set of solar arrays, gyroscopes and other new components destined for the telescope were in the room enclosed in protective bags at the time of the high winds.

The area was cleaned and checked again on Sunday, when more of the grit was found on the protective coverings, Varnes said.

Several trouble-shooting teams have been formed to determine how the problem arose. However, Varnes said, it appears the fine grit was left from a sandblasting operation earlier this year as part of a maintenance effort.

The pad has been inoperative for several months.

The optical components and other repair equipment for the telescope were placed in the clean room on Oct. 26. Endeavour was transferred to its launch pad Thursday.

Varnes said pad engineers plan to install a liner within the clean room to prevent further contamination.

Or, he said, there is a possibility Endeavour will be moved to a neighboring launch pad, which also is equipped with a clean room.

If moved by Tuesday, preparations probably could continue toward a Dec. 1 liftoff, he said.