Astronauts take space walk to keep Hubble pointing in right direction

Atlantis shuttle crew to install new gyroscopes and batteries in orbiting telescopeAstronauts from the Atlantis space shuttle today are to take their second of five space walks 350 miles above Earth to repair and upgrade the Hubble space telescope.Their first task is to install six new gyroscopes that help point the telescope point in the right direction - three of the current gyroscopes are broken.In their second job, astronauts Mike Massimino and Mike Good will also replace three batteries. The new batteries weigh 125lb each and will power the telescope during the night portion of its orbit, when the solar arrays stop generating electricity.All of the existing batteries on Hubble are original equipment from 19 years ago, which were designed to operate for five years.The crew will install new batteries in another bay of the Hubble during the fifth and final spacewalk.Yesterday, they replaced a nearly 16-year-old camera for...

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