With the World Watching, Hubble’s Life Extended

            “The Hubble telescope has become the Washington Monument of U.S. science - beautiful, beloved and important..” Those were the words of Daniel Henninger reporting on the  recent repair mission in the Wall Street Journal. He went on to write that the Hubble represents “the tour de force of tools and human ingenuity.”

            The media worldwide reported daily on the progress of the 13-day mission on the last service call to the Hubble Space Telescope 350 miles above the earth..

            After 19 years in space, the Hubble is now expected to begin 5 to 10 years of operation..

            For years, astronomers around the world have marveled at the revealing images and acclaimed the Hubble the greatest achievement in astronomy since the first use of a telescope by Galileo. With major repairs completed, results are expected to be far greater.

            Hundreds of Perkin-Elmer men and women contributed to the development of key elements of the 12.5-ton orbiting observatory. The Optical Telescope Assembly and the Fine Guidance Sensors have the Perkin-Elmer nameplate on them and are two critical elements of the system.

            Dan McCarthy, the first Project Manager of the HST, comments.

“Hubble was a bold and even risky project, a sea change move beyond the old ways of exploring the heavens. Big steps take courage, but they can and this one did produce spectacular results. Hubble was planned and executed with great care. That it has been so successful an adventure is a great accomplishment and should be no surprise.” More from Dan later.

            Bob Jones, Chief Engineer: “We were staying at a lodge in Yosemite during the week of the mission and had no access to newspapers or TV. They did a fantastic job, especially with the 111 screws. I talked to Ernie Bateman about the frozen bolt on the wide-side camera. Ernie turned that bolt many times in Danbury. I am looking forward to many more years of fantastic performance.”

            Paul Petty was Vice President of Perkin-Elmer and General Manager of the Optical Technology Division. Paul said, “The ability of the astronauts to remove and replace the axial and radial instruments is a testimonial to our P-E engineers. They designed a Focal Plane Structure that could withstand the buffeting of a rocket launch, maintain alignment within microns, and allow the removal and replacement on orbit to the same precision. The astronaut repair on orbit of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), a third generation wider-field camera, and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrometer (STIC) was an outstanding achievement. However, our P-E System Analysts predicted that allowing the instrument designers to use individual power supplies instead of a common Hi-Rel (high reliable) source would result in multiple failures. They were right. The STIS was lost in ‘04 and the ACS in ‘07.”            Dick Babish, Technical Director: “I had the privilege of participating in much of the activities of the Hubble from the early days even before the proposal when we were engaged in conceiving solutions to what were even then known to be critical advances in technology. The HST lives up to expectations in the most dramatic fashion, leading to unexpected new questions about the universe, as well as answers to older ones. Now that we are retiring the only shuttle, this last mission attempts to extend the useful life as much as possible while attaching devices that will permit attachment of re-entry devices that will gracefully guide the Hubble into the sea safely. It will be a sad day when the Hubble will meet its inevitable end. Yet, it will culminate a prideful period in my life having spent so much of it on its evolution.”

            Dan McCarthy added: “It all started in the astronomical community. They saw its great potential and more importantly put in the effort needed to get it recognized. The Hubble’s success and long life was also greatly aided, I believe, by the utilization of the P-E Danbury facility and the big program experience resident there, which contributed to the quality and reliability of the Hubble hardware. Also, critical to the success was process changes implemented by NASA to address science to be investigated (Space Telescope Institute) and the operation management by the Goddard Space Flight Center.” Dan concluded by commenting that “this last visit replaced some key operating hardware and added new and much improved instrumentation. Expect Hubble to be around for a long time.”

            Our website - www.RCNews.org - has several links to Hubble sites. Explored are the history of the program, phenomenal images achieved, and its meaning to advances in astronomy and technology.                         

            The huge technological success of the Hubble is testimony to the ingenuity of Perkin-Elmer people, and is indicative of the worldwide leadership of each of the technologies the company was engaged in. The Perkin-Elmer name will be inscribed indelibly on the Hubble and its meaning to mankind.. No one can ever take that away!!                                                   

                                                                    –by Don Mahon