NASA has never staged a spacewalk or any other comparable in-space event without public coverage of some sort, and it was not known how the agency would have handled an emergency under shutdown constraints with its television system, web operations and social media channels out of action.

Moreover, NASA will be closely monitoring the impact of an extended shutdown to determine if crew transportation or cargo resupply services are required to mitigate imminent threats to life and property on the ISS or other areas."

The telescope's huge segmented mirror assembly and instrument package recently completed testing in a giant Apollo-era vacuum chamber at Johnson and engineers are preparing to ship it to prime contractor Northrup Grumman in California for integration with the spacecraft's power and propulsion systems and a complex sunshade.

SpaceX spokesman John Taylor said early Monday, before the Senate vote, that the company was "hopeful that the Congress will quickly resolve their differences and put our partners in the Air Force and NASA back to doing their important work as soon as possible."

Astronauts Scott Tingle, left, and Mark Vande Hei, right, work in the International Space Station's Quest airlock Monday, preparing their suits and equipment for a planned 6.5-hour spacewalk Tuesday to replace the grapple mechanism on one end of the lab's robot arm.