May 15, 2009—Atlantis's astronauts completed the first of five spacewalks to repair the Hubble telescope. They installed a new camera that will see farther into the universe than ever before.

© 2009 National Geographic (AP). Some Video Courtesy NASA

Unedited Transcription The first of five planned spacewalks to repair and update the Hubble telescope was completed Thursday afternoon.

During the more than 7-and-a-half hour outing, astronauts Grunsfeld and Feustal (FOYS-tuhl) removed the old wide field camera and updated it with a new one that is intended to help scientists see further into the universe than ever before.

The repair was not without its difficulties as the pair had to deal with a stuck bolt which hindered the removal of the old camera.

UPSOUND (English): Voice of Andrew Feustel, Mission Specialist-5 I put in three attempts. Copy that, about three MTL slips on each attempt, and I see no motion on the A latch bolt.

The astronauts were forced to increase the torque of their instruments to remove the bolt, an extremely risky maneuver.

UPSOUND (English): Voice of John Grunsfeld, Mission Specialist-3 But I think we understand that if it breaks, then wide field stays in.

UPSOUND (English): Voice of Houston Mission Control What John said is correct

But in the end, this proved to be a successful strategy.

UPSOUND (English): Voice of Andrew Feustel, Mission Specialist-5 I think I got it. It turned, it definitely turned. It turned, and its turning easily now.

SOUNDBITE (English) David Leckrone, Hubble senior scientist: "So, a tremendous sigh of relief, just absolute kudos to both the crew and the large team of engineers on the ground who worked very hard on this problem this morning, and got us through it, and I don't know, I just hope the rest of the mission is a little bit smoother."

The astronauts also replaced the failed science data processing computer, known as the SI C&DH.

This unit provides command capability to Hubbles science instruments from the ground and sends data back to earth.

On Friday, the two main objectives during the second spacewalk are the installation of new gyroscopes and new batteries, both of which will contribute to extending Hubbles operating life.