Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been in use for 16 years. NASA announced a space shuttle mission for 2008 to return to HST to extend and improve the observatory’s capabilities through 2013. The 11-day mission will be the fifth and probably the final servicing mission.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland is the agency responsible for managing HST. They are certain they can conduct a safe and effective servicing mission to HST.

The crew of astronauts has already been selected. Scott D. Altman will be the Commander and Naval Reserve Captain Gregory C. Johnson will be the Pilot. Mission specialists are John M. Grunsfeld, Michael J. Massimino, Andrew J. Feustel, Michael T. Good, and K. Megan McArthur.

Two new instruments will be installed on HST. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) is a very sensitive ultraviolet spectrograph. The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) is a new camera that is sensitve to a wide range of wavelengths including infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. A Fine Guidance Sensor will be replaced and they will try to repair the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.