Endeavour's telescopes peered some 200,000 light years into the cosmos Monday as astronomers focused on a neighboring galaxy to our own Milky Way.
NASA said stellar observations were picking up as the shuttle and its seven-member crew, including four astrophysicists, passed the one-fourth point in a marathon flight of 151/2 days.John Horack, an assistant mission scientist at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., compared the process to a family vacation.
"The hardest part is packing up the car and getting out of town," Horack said. "Once you get on the road, you really make good time."
Observations were slowed early in the flight as two astronauts worked out kinks in pointing the three ultraviolet telescopes on board.
The instruments were supposed to lock onto their targets automatically via a computerized pointing system, but they drifted and astronauts Ronald Parise and Samuel Durrance had to nudge the system with manual commands.
NASA said most of the problem has been corrected, but Parise and Durrance at times still must issue manual commands to fine-tune the telescope's aim.
Mission Manager John Owens said a computer software bug is suspected, adding that the manual commands are less of a hindrance as the astronauts get used to them.