Mission Payload
| Location | Cargo | Mass |
|---|---|---|
| Bays 1–2 | Orbiter Docking System EMUs 3006, 3004, 3015, 3017 |
1,800 kilograms (4,000 lb) ~480 kilograms (1,100 lb) |
| Bay 3P | Shuttle Power Distribution Unit (SPDU) |
~17 kilograms (37 lb) |
| Bay 4–5 | SLIC /COPE with Wide Field Camera 3 |
2,990 kilograms (6,600 lb) |
| Bay 7–8 | ORUC COS/RSU/FGS Cosmic Origins Spectrograph Fine Guidance Sensor, Gyros |
3,339 kilograms (7,360 lb) |
| Bay 10P | GABA/MFR | ~50 kilograms (110 lb) |
| Bay 10P | GABA/PFR | ~50 kilograms (110 lb) |
| Bay 11 | HST-FSS/BAPS/SCM Berthing and Positioning Sys Soft Capture Mechanism |
2,177 kilograms (4,800 lb) |
| Bay 12 | MULE RNS, NOBL blankets |
1,409 kilograms (3,110 lb) |
| Starboard Sill | Orbiter Boom Sensor System | ~382 kilograms (840 lb) |
| Port Sill | Canadarm 301 | 410 kilograms (900 lb) |
| Total: | 13,104 kilograms (28,890 lb) |
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.
Read more about this topic: STS-125
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“It is the mission of the twentieth century to elucidate the irrational.”
—Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1907–1961)