Spacewalkers Wrap Up Tricky Hubble Job

Spacewalking astronauts had to put a refurbished pair of gyroscopes into the Hubble Space Telescope after a brand new set refused to go in yesterday, but scientists were satisfied nonetheless and confident the observatory would point precisely to more distant objects in the cosmos. Replacing the gyroscopes was the top priority of the repair mission, and the struggle had NASA on edge for 2 hours.

Thanks to the spacewalkers' effort, Hubble ended up with four brand new gyroscopes and two refurbished ones. It was the second spacewalk in as many days for the Atlantis astronauts, who once again were bedeviled by problems. Yesterday's spacewalk was one of the longest ever, lasting nearly 8 hours, and Mission Control told the weary crew members that they could sleep in and start today's spacewalk a little late. (More shuttle stories.)