New Hubble Space Telescope Hardware Damaged On The Ground
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According to NASA sources, last Thursday, an eye bolt supporting a lifting rig failed while off-loading the Wide-field Scientific Instrument Protective Enclosure (WSIPE) dropping the rig onto the WSIPE.
The WSIPE is the flight hardware enclosure for the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC-3) which is scheduled for installation on the Hubble Space Telescope during a possible Space Shuttle mission in 2007.
A Mishap Investigation Board has been assembled and has begun to investigate what happened. No one was hurt during this incident.
While NASA has not formally approved a shuttle mission to visit Hubble, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin told NASA employees at GSFC on Tuesday that he’d be making a decision no later than 1 November 2006.
