NASA Preparing to Service Hubble for the Last Time, In Glorious Pictures

The Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog continues its incredible coverage of all things wonderful to look at today with a spread relating to the space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis is scheduled to launch on October 8, equipped with all manner of instruments, batteries and gyroscopes for Hubble. Pictured above is one of the massive Atlantis engines being moved to the main bay for installation. That’s just one engine, though—there’s plenty of space-related tech porn to be found in the rest of the spread, too.

Servicing Mission 4 astronaut Drew Feustel uses the “Pistol Grip Tool,” a computer-controlled power tool, to install the Wide Field Camera 3 into a high-fidelity Hubble model. Just another day at the office.

Feustel gets all the fun gadgets, apparently. In this image he’s practicing with one of the cameras for the mission. It’s certainly no Nikon D90, but—what am I saying. This thing is one of the most advanced pieces of gear in the solar system. It’s Labour Day today. I need this thing for a barbecue. [NASA images via The Big Picture]