An orbital replacement unit or orbital replaceable unit is a modular component of spacecraft that can be replaced upon failure either by robot or by

extravehicular activity Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable atmosphere of Earth, Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmen ...

. The

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ver ...

(HST) was designed with 70 such parts, including scientific instruments and limited-life items such as batteries. On HST some parts were designed from the start as ORUs and all used captive bolts with a standard 7/16" double-height hex head; Section 2.2. later when it was decided to avoid returning HST to Earth for repair, more systems and modules were designated as ORUs (but used a wider variety of fasteners). HST servicing mission 3A (SM3A) replaced (or added) 15 ORUs, e.g. it replaced the

DF-224 The DF-224 is a space-qualified computer used in space missions from the 1980s. It was built by Rockwell Autonetics. As with many spacecraft computers, the design is very redundant, since servicing in space is at best difficult and often impossi ...

computer with the ''Advanced Computer''. The electrical system of the International Space Station also has such subsystems that provide power generation, power distribution and energy storage.

References

Hubble Space Telescope Spacecraft components {{spacecraft-stub

See also

References