December 2nd 1993 the crew boards the
shuttle Endeavour the world watches as
they blast off toward the stricken
Hubble of five spacewalks tackles a set
task to carry out maintenance work to
replace the faulty solar panels and to
install new instruments working in
spacesuits and zero gravity isn’t easy
but there are some upsides we were
moving around pieces of equipment the
size and the shape of the grand piano no
way could I have moved that around on
the earth you know you feel like
Superman up there
they fit the new correction device
successfully but not everything goes
smoothly one of the faulty solar panels
is too warm to roll back into its
original holder the astronauts jettison
it into space that started to somersault
and we were just mesmerized it was
flapping you know it was like the wings
of some giant prehistoric bird but the
most challenging surprise comes as
Hoffmann tries to close one of Hubble’s
equipment bay doors this was something
we had done dozens of times underwater
but when I went to close them oh they
didn’t it didn’t close right the effects
of zero gravity have deformed the door
if it isn’t shut the telescope won’t be
optically sealed all future observations
will be ruined
it was a potentially fatal problem and
you’ll basically lose the telescope
another astronaut joins Hoffman at the
door between them they can hold it
closed
but then neither has a free hand to lock
it shut we came up with an idea of
adapting one of our tools in a
completely non standard manner but
basically to work as an extra hand their
plan is to hold the door shut with a
strapping device leaving them free to
close the locks they suggest the idea to
ground control I think they had visions
of us wrapping this tool all the way
around Hubble and and cinching it down
and Hubble was going to collapse like an
aluminum beer can finally the the flight
director I think made a good call he
said look team we sent these people up
they can see better than we can let’s
let them go ahead and do what they think
needs to be done the plan works mental
ingenuity and some old-fashioned elbow
grease get the door seal off Minh steam
returns to the shuttle at 7 hours and 54
minutes it clocks in as the second
longest spacewalk in history
shuttle Endeavour the world watches as
they blast off toward the stricken
Hubble of five spacewalks tackles a set
task to carry out maintenance work to
replace the faulty solar panels and to
install new instruments working in
spacesuits and zero gravity isn’t easy
but there are some upsides we were
moving around pieces of equipment the
size and the shape of the grand piano no
way could I have moved that around on
the earth you know you feel like
Superman up there
they fit the new correction device
successfully but not everything goes
smoothly one of the faulty solar panels
is too warm to roll back into its
original holder the astronauts jettison
it into space that started to somersault
and we were just mesmerized it was
flapping you know it was like the wings
of some giant prehistoric bird but the
most challenging surprise comes as
Hoffmann tries to close one of Hubble’s
equipment bay doors this was something
we had done dozens of times underwater
but when I went to close them oh they
didn’t it didn’t close right the effects
of zero gravity have deformed the door
if it isn’t shut the telescope won’t be
optically sealed all future observations
will be ruined
it was a potentially fatal problem and
you’ll basically lose the telescope
another astronaut joins Hoffman at the
door between them they can hold it
closed
but then neither has a free hand to lock
it shut we came up with an idea of
adapting one of our tools in a
completely non standard manner but
basically to work as an extra hand their
plan is to hold the door shut with a
strapping device leaving them free to
close the locks they suggest the idea to
ground control I think they had visions
of us wrapping this tool all the way
around Hubble and and cinching it down
and Hubble was going to collapse like an
aluminum beer can finally the the flight
director I think made a good call he
said look team we sent these people up
they can see better than we can let’s
let them go ahead and do what they think
needs to be done the plan works mental
ingenuity and some old-fashioned elbow
grease get the door seal off Minh steam
returns to the shuttle at 7 hours and 54
minutes it clocks in as the second
longest spacewalk in history
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