So it all started: The space shuttle Atlantis, the space telescope "Hubble" captured and attached to her arm.

The first outdoor use to repair the old space telescope "Hubble" has begun: The first task take Andrew Feustel, John Grunsfeld install a new camera in the attack. The astronauts are enthusiastic about the state of the telescope "Hubble" still look great.

Two astronauts of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis on Thursday its first foreign operation to repair the old space telescope "Hubble" start. John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel, inter alia, an old camera to "Hubble" by a new model to replace.

It is a "Wide Field Camera 3, which is much farther than previous models in the infinite vastness of the universe can look. The installation is one of the most important work of the fifth and final servicing of the telescope, which is still at least five years work.

The external use of the two men began a little late and should be more than six hours. The maneuver was the world on the NASA TV and on the Internet. The two men even have cameras in their helmets, so that the NASA control center in Houston (U.S. state of Texas) and the congestion of the Internet public can track each handle. During Servicing Mission elftägigen are a total of five foreign missions planned.

Later the astronauts climbed Drew Feustel, John Grunsfeld (left) into space to make the 16-year-old camera with a new exchange.

On Wednesday, the crew of Space Shuttle Atlantis in space telescope captured. During the shuttle and "Hubble" in more than 500 kilometers around the earth

circled drove the U.S. astronaut Megan McArthur a 15-meter-long arm of the shuttle and picked up the eleven tons of heavy telescope out to view it in the cargo bay of Atlantis to hoist. "Great job, Megan," said a spokesman in the control of the U.S. space agency Nasa. "It is great, again with" Hubble "to be in touch."

The leader of the repair brigade, "Grunsfeld, was in advance of the outing said, although" Hubble "is already 19 years on an orbit located on a lot of space debris circles, is at the telescope in" excellent shape ". On Wednesday, an approximately ten Zentimer large part scrap the ferry approached. But it was no evasive action is required.

Meanwhile, NASA has indicated that about half a meter long Schramme, on the right side of the heat shield was discovered, endanger the safe return of the orbiter is not. The damage at the start by a sloping portion of the foam covering arose, but I investigated further.

The repair work on the space telescope "Hubble" live on the Internet: