NASA Astronauts Prepare For Final Hubble Spacewalk

May 18, 2009 8:18 a.m. EST

Houston, TX (AHN) - NASA reports conditions are good for astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel to make the fifth and final spacewalk on Monday as the space shuttle Atlantis remains attached to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for repairs and upgrades.

Monday's spacewalk will allow the pair to install batteries on the HST and replace a sensor the telescope uses to orient itself. Once completed, the two astronauts will focus on the New Outer Blanket Layer (NOBL) on the outside of the telescope's Bay 5.

According to NASA, the NOBL on Bay 8 was due to be installed during yesterday's spacewalk, but was not completed. It is now an additional objective today, if time permits. The astronauts are already ahead of their proposed timeline and will begin the spacewalk an hour earlier, raising hopes that they might be able to tackle the additional work.

So far, STS-125 has been a success. Astronauts have been in space for almost seven days now, and remain hard at work outfitting the HST for what scientists hope will be another several years of service.