Happy Anniversary Hubble Space Telescope (a couple days late)

RantWoman is cleaning out email. The item below is from someone RantWoman went to high school with and probably shared, say Calculus class with. RantWoman's classmate grew up to work on the Hubble Space Telescope.

RantWoman really likes this remembrance for a few different reasons:

--RantWoman has lots of experience with technology not working as advertised. RantWoman thinks thousands of jobs on the line about something careening around the earth at 17,000 mph would be way too gutwrenching on top of the technological glitches.

--RantWoman spent a certain amount of time in her reckless youth thinking about careers to do with astronomy. Among other things she figured out she was doing way too well about blurriness already without things that careen around the earth at 17,000 mph.

--RantWoman knows quite a few scientists and astronomers. They do not all necessarily know each other, but sometimes RantWoman's encounters with one elicit stories and interesting exchanges from others.

--RantWoman has almost boundless awe for professionals who subject themselves to the scorn of schoolchildren. This awe extends first of all to teachers but also those who appear in the name of classical music, drama, the importance of knowing more than one language or being an interpreter, the wonders of falconry, and even spending lots and lots of tax dollars sending geekery into orbit in the name of science.

--RantWoman does not have enough things to worry about and will immediately add the threat of 1000 titanium bolts raining down upon her head a few years down the road if a rocket cannot be attached to the space telescope carcass to direct its re-entry over the Pacific Ocean. Wait: RantWoman lives sufficiently close to the Pacific Ocean that if she really wants to fret, she can add titanium bolts raining out of the cosmos to her fret list no matter what.

So Happy Anniversary Hubble (a couple days late)

Happy Anniversary Hubble Space Telescope!
...
Twenty years ago, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched on the Space Shuttle. At the time, I was working for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center. I was assigned to the Space Station. Goddard had some responsibilities for the cameras on the Hubble but the telescope itself was the responsibility of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

Shortly after launch, it was discovered that Hubble had an optical problem. Its vision wasn't as crisp as predicted. NASA got skewered by the press, by Congress, by late night talk shows, even small children hated us (read on, I am not joking).

Editorial cartoons flourished poking fun at NASA. "Here is NASA's Hubble Scientist, Mr. Magoo." Oh how the hilarity ensued. I laughed and laughed and laughed. It was a real riot. In the movie "Naked Gun 2 1/2", there was a scene at a restaurant called The Blue Note and on the walls, inbetween pictures of the Titanic and the Hindenburg was a picture of the Hubble Space Telescope. That was the second best part of the movie. The best part was O.J. Simpson's Oscar-worthy performance...you know, before ... . My stomach hurt from all of the laughter. In the words of Ross Perot, it was high-larious.

NASA had always planned on repairing and upgrading the Hubble every 2-3 years. But we certainly didn't expect to have this optical problem. NASA Headquarters told Goddard to go fix the Hubble. That's when I was assigned to the Hubble team. I was part of a NASA team to fix Hubble. Other things were wrong with Hubble by the way. The solar arrays flapped severely coming in and out of the sunlight (Hubble goes around the earth every 90 minutes traveling at 17,500 miles per hour). It's a little difficult to take a picture when your camera is shaking. Hubble's gyroscopes kept failing. etc. etc.

So the optical fix was just one part of the challenge.
And NASA doesn't typically repair satellites. We had very little experience and knowledge about what to do. We had to figure it out as went along. We had to design, build, and test the hardware. We had to train the astronauts on how to do these repairs. We had to build the structures that would attach our hardware inside the Space Shuttle.
To top if off, Congress was threatening to cancel the Space Station project. They were waiting to see if we could fix the Hubble. If you can't fix Hubble, what makes you think you can build and maintain a Space Station? So thousands of jobs were on the line. The pressure was intense. I have never worked so hard in my life.

I frequently speak to schools. Before the first Hubble repair mission, I was speaking to a high school and I asked the kids who had heard of Hubble. Most hands went up. I asked what they had heard about Hubble. "It can't see." "It has blurry images." "Why do I have to sit here listening to a NASA geek?" were typical responses. But one kid yelled out "IT'S A WASTE OF MONEY!!!" See? Children hated us.

Finally, launch day. I was sick with nerves. As I watched the Shuttle go up, I was worried our hardware would somehow break off inside the Shuttle and destroy it and kill the astronauts. So I did not enjoy the launch.

The first spacewalk day was supposed to be the easiest. In the plan was to replace the gyroscopes. During ground simulations and water tank simulations, this was a very easy and smooth operation. And on-orbit, everything went very smoothly...until the astronauts had to close the doors on Hubble. They wouldn't close. And they needed to be closed or else sunlight would enter inside the telescope and we wouldn't be able to take pictures of the stars and planets. I saw my career drifting off into Naked Gun 3 1/2. ....

Finally we figured how to close the doors. We completed all of the repairs over the next several days. The shuttle landed safely. Now we had to see if the optical fix worked. The first images came through. YES! We fixed it! I was part of a very large team so I don't deserve much credit. But feel free to send me accolades and cold hard cash is never frowned upon (I kid. You are already paying me by paying your taxes. You are paying your taxes, aren't you?!!)

We went on to complete four more repair/upgrade missions of Hubble. After the third repair mission, I went on to the James Webb Space Telescope Project. There will be no more Hubble repair missions. We hope that Hubble will last until 2014 because that's when we launch the James Webb Space Telescope.

When I speak to schools now, children love us. And college kids don't even know that there ever was a problem with Hubble. They were tooyoung when these problems occurred.

What will happen to Hubble after it finally quits working? We think in 20-30 years, it will start to re-enter the atmosphere. We plan on using a robot to install a small rocket on Hubble sometime in the future so that we can direct it over the Pacific Ocean. If we can't put the rocket on, we have no control over Hubble and it could re-enter over a populated area. Some of it will survive re-entry. Hubble has something like a thousand titanium bolts in it that would survive re-entry along with some other stuff so if that day ever comes, find an underground bunker somewhere!!!

Happy Anniversary Hubble! Here's a link to the latest Hubble picture release:
http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/gallery/20th-anniversary-of-NASAs-Hubble/3247/