page_title: STS-125
section_title: Mission payload
hierarchical_section_title: STS-125 / Mission payload
caption_attribution_description: In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, technicians wait for the rotation of the Wide Field Camera 3, or WFC3, in order to attach a crane. The WFC3 will be transferred to the Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier.
context_page_description: STS-125, or HST-SM4, was the fifth and final Space Shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and the last solo flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.
  The launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis occurred on 11 May 2009 at 2:01 pm EDT. Landing occurred on 24 May at 11:39 am EDT, with the mission lasting a total of just under 13 days.
  Space Shuttle Atlantis carried two new instruments to the Hubble Space Telescope, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3. The mission also replaced a Fine Guidance Sensor, six gyroscopes, and two battery unit modules to allow the telescope to continue to function at least through 2014. The crew also installed new thermal blanket insulating panels to provide improved thermal protection, and a soft-capture mechanism that would aid in the safe de-orbiting of the telescope by a robotic spacecraft at the end of its operational lifespan. The mission also carried an IMAX camera with which the crew documented the progress of the mission for the 2010 IMAX film, Hubble.
context_section_description: The mission added two new instruments to Hubble. The first instrument, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, is now the most sensitive ultraviolet spectrograph installed on the telescope. Its far-UV channel is 30 times more sensitive than previous instruments and the near-UV is twice as sensitive. The second instrument, the Wide Field Camera 3, is a panchromatic wide-field camera that can record a wide range of wavelengths, including infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. Atlantis also carried the Soft-Capture Mechanism, which was installed onto the telescope.
  This will enable a spacecraft to be sent to the telescope to assist in its safe de-orbit at the end of its life. It is a circular mechanism containing structures and targets to aid docking.
  The infrastructure of the telescope was upgraded by replacing a "Fine Guidance Sensor" that controls the telescope's directional system, installing a set of six new gyroscopes, replacing batteries, and installing a new outer blanket layer to provide improved insulation.
  The payload bay elements were the Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier (SLIC) which held the Wide Field Camera 3, new batteries, and a radiator; the ORU Carrier which stored the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and FGS-3R instruments; the Flight Support Structure (FSS) which held onto the Hubble during repairs; the Multi-Use Lightweight Equipment Carrier (MULE) which held support equipment and the Relative Navigation Sensor (RNS) Experiment.
  Along with the collectible items that are flown on shuttle missions, such as mission patches, flags, and other personal items for the crew, were an official Harlem Globetrotters basketball and a basketball that Edwin Hubble used in 1909 when he played for the University of Chicago. After being returned to Earth, the Harlem Globetrotters basketball would be placed in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and Hubble's ball would be returned to the University of Chicago. Michael Massimino flew a 1964 reprint of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius from the library of his alma mater, MIT.
caption: The Wide Field Camera 3 being prepared for launch.
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