Megan McArthur

Megan McArthur, a Silicon Valley native who graduated from St. Francis High School in Mountain View in 1989, will be making her first spaceflight She is one of seven astronauts picked to fly in an 11-day mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis (STS-125) Hubble Servicing Mission scheduled to launch Monday May 11 at 11:01 am.

McArthur’s parents currently live in San Jose, and she considers California her home state, although she was born in Hawaii. She has a doctorate in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.

For the Hubble mission she will be responsible for the robotic arm operations during the capture and release of Hubble, as well as during the spacewalks and Atlantis’ heat shield inspections. She also will serve as the flight engineer, assisting on the flight deck during ascent and landing.

Atlantis’ 11-day mission will include five spacewalks to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope with state-of-the-art science instruments, expanding the telescope’s capabilities and extending its lifetime through at least 2014.

Refurbishing and restoring will include installing new Battery Module Units, new Rate Sensor Units, New Outer Blanket Layer material, an upgraded Fine Guidance Sensor, Advanced Camera for Surveys, Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, along with upgrading the Wide Field Camera and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. Now you know.

Identifying the Spacewalkers:
John Grunsfeld – Solid red stripes
Drew Feustel – No markings (solid white suit)
Mike Massimino – Broken horizontal red stripes
Michael Good – Diagonal red stripes (barber pole)

Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4 – STS-125
Launch: May 11 – 11:01 am PDT
Landing: May 22 – 8:41 am PDT

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