Canadian Support Team to Assist with Hubble Telescope Tune-up

BRAMPTON, Ontario - On December 16, 1999 Space Shuttle flight STS-103, equipped with the Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System (RMS), will lift off on the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Critical to the success of this mission is the RMS, or Canadarm, developed and built by MacDonald Dettwiler Space and Advanced Robotics Ltd. (MD Robotics). The Canadarm on-orbit operations will be supported by a team of MD Robotics engineers at NASA Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston, Texas.

The MD Robotics Support Team provides around the clock support to Mission Control throughout the nine day mission. From the moment the arm is powered on, just 2 ½ hours after lift-off, until the arm is stowed in the orbiter bay for return to earth, the team will monitor the more than 500 performance parameters associated with the arm. The team will also be available to address technical questions posed by the astronauts or flight controller.

Canadarm will be used extensively by the Discovery crew during four, six-hour scheduled EVAs to install new equipment and repair the 9-year old satellite. When Discovery is within 200 ft. of Hubble, Mission Specialist Clervoy will use the arm to grapple the telescope, maneuver it and berth it in the shuttle cargo bay. Once the 42-foot high Hubble has been latched, astronauts will use the RMS as a work platform to remove and install replacement parts. Following the scheduled maintenance, the Remote Manipulator System will grapple Hubble and redeploy the refurbished telescope.

"All of us feel very proud of the role we have played in enabling the Hubble to make the great discoveries of the Universe," said Mike Hiltz, one of five senior systems engineers supporting the mission at NASA. "The RMS has played an important role in maintaining the Hubble and ranks among Canadarm's greatest accomplishments."

The Hubble servicing missions, aided by the Canadarm, are excellent examples of the ability to repair and maintain hardware on-orbit. Like Hubble, the International Space Station will make extensive use of the Canadarm and the Mobile Servicing System, the new generation robotics, to not only maintain the orbiting laboratory, but to assist in its construction as well.

MD Robotics, under government contract to the Canadian Space Agency and with the help of a Canada-wide industrial team, developed the next generation robotics needed to construct and maintain the International Space Station. Canada?s contribution, known as the Mobile Servicing System, comprises a Remote Manipulator System, the next generation Canadarm; a Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, a two-armed robot designed to carry out delicate assembly and servicing tasks; and a Mobile Base System, a work platform and storage area mounted to the Space Station.

MD Robotics, located in Brampton, Ontario is Canada's leading space robotics company. The company is a subsidiary of B.C. based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA). MDA employs more than 1,500 people at offices in British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia; and at multiple foreign offices. MacDonald Dettwiler is a wholly owned subsidiary of Orbital Sciences Corporation, one of the largest space technology and satellite services companies in the world.