HOUSTON (Reuters) - A pair of spacewalking astronauts floated outside the space shuttle Atlantis on Thursday to work on the Hubble Space Telescope, a 19-year-old observatory that has changed scientists' understanding of the universe.
Clad in bulky pressurized spacesuits, five-time shuttle flier John Grunsfeld, 50, and rookie partner Andrew Feustel, 43, left Atlantis' airlock just before 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) for the first of five spacewalks. The astronauts are to repair the telescope and install new instruments that will allow Hubble to capture images of objects formed as early as about 500 years after the birth of the universe.
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