NICMOS installed in Hubble telescope

"Astronauts didn't waste any moves," said Marcia Rieke, NICMOS deputy principal investigator and University of Arizona astronomer. "The installation went well."

Astronaut Steve Hawley operated Discovery's mechanical arm and latched the shuttle to the 12-ton, 43-foot telescope as the two spacecraft soared 370 miles above Mexico's southwestern coast.

Rieke said astronomers on Earth performed two tests to determine if the installation was a success.

The first was an "aliveness" test. It checked all connections from NICMOS to the telescope to verify power, commands and data were being transferred and exchanged from the ground.

The second test was a "functional" test. Internal lamps were used to take pictures and make sure all functions worked.

"This one is pretty crucial," Rieke said.

Both tests occurred just before 5 a.m. Friday.

Donald McCarthy Jr., a UA astronomer on the NICMOS team, said they found two problems, but neither affected the installation of NICMOS.

One problem occurred when one of the solar arrays on the Hubble telescope moved unexpectedly, he said.

Rieke said a new air lock, which was installed on the shuttle to aid in docking with the Russian space station MIR, allowed air to escape into space when it was opened, hitting one of the solar arrays into an unexpected position.

She said the shift in the solar array delayed the initial space walk by 15 minutes, but no harm was done.

McCarthy added that astronauts had some trouble closing the doors to the telescope, but that also did not affect the installation.

Rieke said there are three more space walks to be carried out for this shuttle mission. The shuttle will release the telescope Feb. 18, when it will resume its normal functions.

Data will not be available from NICMOS for another month.

The instruments were shipped in a "thermos bottle" containing a block of nitrogen, which is basically frozen air, said Erick Young, an associate astronomer on the NICMOS team.

Young said NICMOS was designed to detect heat radiation. If the instrument is hot, it will detect heat from itself.

"It would be like looking at the stars with the lights on," Young said.

Once installed, NICMOS will begin releasing evaporated nitrogen into space. The evaporated nitrogen will cool the other instruments on board Hubble to reduce heat radiation.

NICMOS is operational, but not at its full sensitivity, Young said.

"We have to wait for everything to equalibriate before we can start taking pictures," Rieke said.

Scientists calculated that Hubble had logged 996 million miles and made more than 110,100 observations of stars, galaxies, planets and other astronomical objects before its capture Friday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.