Thursday will see the first of five EVAs to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA reports:

STS-125 to Conduct First Spacewalk

Image above: The Hubble Space Telescope waits in the payload bay of space shuttle Atlantis for the start of the first STS-125 spacewalk. Photo credit: NASA TV

Mission specialists John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel will kick off STS-125’s first spacewalk at 8:16 a.m. EDT.

During the 6½ hour excursion, the pair will remove the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and replace it with a new wide-field camera. The new camera will allow the telescope to take large-scale, clear and detailed photos over a wide range of colors.

The spacewalkers’ next major task will be the replacement of the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit. The computer sends commands to Hubble’s science instruments and formats science data for transmission to the ground.

If time permits, Feustel and Grunsfeld will install a soft capture mechanism, which will allow future vehicles to attach to the telescope.

Their final scheduled task for the day will be to install three latch-over-center kits that will allow for faster opening and closing of the telescope doors during the third spacewalk.

› View the Launch of Atlantis in High Definition (HD)

STS-125 Additional Resources
› Mission Summary (407KB PDF)
› Press Kit (4.8MB PDF)
› Meet the Crew
› Learn About the Mission

Flight Day 2 pics and video are up at the JSC Gallery. Status Report #6 here. Discussion here. Check the links at right for play-by-play and NASA TV.