posted 08-09-2021 12:00 AM               

Astro Restoration Project pieces together space shuttle astronomy payload

In the same year the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed, NASA launched the first of two space shuttle missions dedicated to the study of astronomy and astrophysics. Now, three decades later, the hardware that made up the Astro-1 mission (and its 1995 follow-up, Astro-2) is being recovered, reunited and restored for museum display.

The Astro Restoration Project, a volunteer-run effort supported by commercial sponsors, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama and the Smithsonian, is now well underway towards its goal of bringing the STS-35 (and STS-67) mission hardware back to its as-flown condition. Many of the people working on the project are retired NASA employees who configured the payload for its launch.

posted 02-15-2022 06:47 PM               

Today marks an important milestone in the Astro Restoration Project. Students with the NASA HUNCH program partnered with Astro Restoration Project volunteers to rejoin the first of three telescopes, the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE), to the restored cruciform.

From the Astro Restoration Project (via Facebook):

There is great celebration! After more than two decades, WUPPE is now reunited with the Astro Cruciform.

posted 02-02-2023 02:39 PM               

We are contacting your organization in regards to potentially helping us locate a missing element of the Astro payload called the "Integrated Radiator System (IRS)". This is a mechanical structure that was used for housing various avionics boxes on a large "L" shaped structure with a silver reflective tape covered radiator utilizing heat-pipes for passive thermal control (see attached graphics/pictures).

Approximate dimensions are 40"h x 67"w x 40"d, with a weight approximately 500 lbs. The shipping container was steel, painted white with metal structure around the exterior. It would add approximately 200 lbs. so the overall weight in shipping container is approximately 700 lbs.

It was likely excessed from NASA in the late 90's through auction or other disposition. It may have been shipped/stored in a large transportation crate when excessed. Other relevant information to identify it: IRS Structural Assembly F5-31017-1 (This I what it should have been shipped as, in its de-integrated state) and/or IRS Assembly F5-31047-1. To-date, we have been unsuccessful in tracking down its final disposition.

We are reaching out to see if your organization potentially knows the whereabouts of the IRS, or could recommend other search paths. We recognize that this item may have been dispositioned and sadly turned into scrap metal. However; we wish to do full due diligence on exhausting all leads before we give up hope on finding this flown spaceflight element.

Please let us know if you have any information about this item. Thank you for your time and help.