Mission Specialist Jean-Francois Clervoy then grappled Hubble using the shuttles robotic arm and placed it on the Flight Support System at the back of space shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay.
The first spacewalk, also known as extravehicular activity (EVA), saw specialists Steven Smith and John Grunsfeld make numerous repairs, including replacing the telescope’s three Rate Sensor Units, each containing two gyroscopes.
The astronauts also installed six Voltage/Temperature Improvement Kits between Hubble’s solar panels and its six 10-year-old batteries.
A succession of minor problems caused this eight hour and 15-minute spacewalk to become the second-longest EVA, after Endeavour’s STS-49 mission in May 1992.
