Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention

by Kathryn D. Sullivan

Overview

The first American woman to walk in space recounts her experience as part of the team that launched, rescued, repaired, and maintained the Hubble Space Telescope
 
The Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionized our understanding of the universe. It has, among many other achievements, revealed thousands of galaxies in what seemed to be empty patches of sky; transformed our knowledge of black holes; found dwarf planets with moons orbiting other stars; and measured precisely how fast the universe is expanding. In Handprints on Hubble, retired astronaut Kathryn Sullivan describes her work on the NASA team that made all this possible. Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, recounts how she and other astronauts, engineers, and scientists launched, rescued, repaired, and maintained Hubble, the most productive observatory ever built.
 
Along the way, Sullivan chronicles her early life as a “Sputnik Baby,” her path to NASA through oceanography, and her initiation into the space program as one of “thirty-five new guys.” (She was also one of the first six women to join NASA’s storied astronaut corps.) She describes in vivid detail what liftoff feels like inside a spacecraft (it’s like “being in an earthquake and a fighter jet at the same time”), shows us the view from a spacewalk, and recounts the temporary grounding of the shuttle program after the Challenger disaster.
 
Sullivan explains that “maintainability” was designed into Hubble, and she describes the work of inventing the tools and processes that made on-orbit maintenance possible. Because in-flight repair and upgrade was part of the plan, NASA was able to fix a serious defect in Hubble’s mirrors—leaving literal and metaphorical “handprints on Hubble.”
 
Handprints on Hubble was published with the support of the MIT Press Fund for Diverse Voices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262355940
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	11/05/2019
Series:	Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation series
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Kathryn D. Sullivan is a NASA astronaut (retired), former Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and an inductee in the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword vii

Prologue ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Acronyms xvii

1 Introduction 1

2 Sputnik Baby 9

3 Thirty-Five New Guys-25

4 "It Shall Be Maintain Able" 83

5 Mission Prep 101

6 Grounded 133

7 Returning to Flight 157

8 A New Star in the Sky 205

9 Rescue And Renovation 221

Notes 253

Bibliography 265

Index 271

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Dr. Sullivan starts out headed for the bottom of the sea. Soon, she flies us 200 miles above the sky, using her head, heart, and hands to solve problem after problem— and help us take in views that are out of this world. She does it all with her veneer of astronaut cool, of course. What an adventure—no wonder she loves it.

—Bill Nye, CEO, The Planetary Society

A wonderful tale of the most remarkable scientific instrument of our time, and the people who made it possible. This fascinating story of the Hubble Space Telescope's visioning, development, and miraculous recovery, written by my longtime friend and two-time shuttle crewmate Dr. Kathy Sullivan, pays tribute to the unsung heroes of Hubble's initial deployment and subsequent servicing.

—Charlie Bolden, NASA Astronaut Pilot STS-31; 12th NASA Administrator

So that's how it all works! Kathy Sullivan's insider knowledge and spacewalking savvy turn the nuts-and-bolts narrative of a giant piece of hardware into a daring space odyssey. From roaring rockets to tiny wrenches—as human ingenuity shaped NASA technology—it's an intimate portrait of our magnificent Hubble eye-in-the-sky. I was, yes, riveted.

—Lynn Sherr, longtime space correspondent for ABC News; author, Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space

Perhaps the most important spacecraft ever launched in a single mission is the Hubble Space Telescope. HST has provided to humanity more knowledge of our universe than any instrument since Galileo first peered through ground glass. Astronaut Kathy Sullivan was there at the beginning of Hubble's design. As much as anyone, her handprints are on this magnificent space observatory. Now, in this fast-paced memoir, she tells us of the frustrations and triumphs of her storied career as the first American woman to walk in space and how she came to deploy the Hubble in orbit. A page-turner, Sullivan's memoir is for more than space buffs. It's for anyone who loves a good read about an adventurous life written by the person who lived it.

—Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys/October Sky

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/09/2019

Sullivan, the first female astronaut to do a space walk, debuts with an accessible and fascinating memoir of her experiences as a pioneering scientist, highlighted by her work on the Hubble space telescope. Beginning with joining NASA in 1978, as part of the first new batch of astronauts in nine years, she takes readers through a career arc that culminated in joining the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as under-secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. She focuses on her time at NASA, where she was part of a team responsible for the maintenance and repairs of Hubble, and involved in its launch. As Sullivan describes, with just the right amount of detail, painstaking preparations were required before Hubble launched—and even afterwards, a minuscule error imperiled the multibillion-dollar project, requiring an in-space repair mission. Sullivan is the perfect narrator to explain the underpinnings of the ambitious project and why it proved worthwhile—namely, that the images it captured greatly expanded humanity’s understanding of the birth of stars, the rate of the universe’s expansion, and other cosmic phenomena. Sullivan’s fine volume shines a light on the nuts-and-bolts tasks that make extraordinary endeavors possible. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Longlisted for the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books, Young Adult Science Book Winners.

"[A]n accessible and fascinating memoir of [Sullivan's] experiences as a pioneering scientist, highlighted by her work on the Hubble space telescope… Sullivan's fine volume shines a light on the nuts-and-bolts tasks that make extraordinary endeavors possible."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Throughout the narrative, [Sullivan's] easy hand with details and infectious enthusiasm make for a winning combination. A smooth delivery of the nit and grit behind the success of the Hubble.
—Kirkus Reviews

"Handprints on Hubble is an involving, inspiring personal account of creating Hubble, the telescope that changed Earth's view of the universe."
—Foreword Reviews

"An accessible, engaging read for students of engineering and the history of technology and generalist readers interested in NASA history."
—Library Journal

"To read these [this book] is to marvel at what we have achieved in our nascent efforts to inhabit space, and to recognize that we have barely begun that quest."
—Nature

"As a ringside spectator of Challenger, Sullivan's memories are tinged by tragedy and she remained soberly aware that she might never return from a mission. Behind every scene Hubble itself looms large – “like a beautiful silver gift from Tiffany's” – whose contribution to understanding our place in the cosmos needs no qualification."
—SKY AT NIGHT Magazine

"Dr. Sullivan starts out headed for the bottom of the sea. Soon, she flies us 200 miles above the sky, using her head, heart, and hands to solve problem after problem — and help us take in views that are out of this world. She does it all with her veneer of astronaut cool, of course. What an adventure — no wonder she loves it."
—Bill Nye, CEO, The Planetary Society

"A wonderful tale of the most remarkable scientific instrument of our time, and the people who made it possible. This fascinating story of the Hubble Space Telescope’s visioning, development, and miraculous recovery, written by my longtime friend and two-time shuttle crewmate Dr. Kathy Sullivan, pays tribute to the unsung heroes of Hubble’s initial deployment and subsequent servicing."
—Charlie Bolden, NASA Astronaut Pilot STS-31; 12th NASA Administrator

"So that’s how it all works! Kathy Sullivan’s insider knowledge and spacewalking savvy turn the nuts-and-bolts narrative of a giant piece of hardware into a daring space odyssey. From roaring rockets to tiny wrenches — as human ingenuity shaped NASA technology — it’s an intimate portrait of our magnificent Hubble eye-in-the-sky. I was, yes, riveted."  
–Lynn Sherr, longtime space correspondent for ABC News; author, Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space

"Perhaps the most important spacecraft ever launched in a single mission is the Hubble Space Telescope. HST has provided to humanity more knowledge of our universe than any instrument since Galileo first peered through ground glass. Astronaut Kathy Sullivan was there at the beginning of Hubble's design. As much as anyone, her handprints are on this magnificent space observatory. Now, in this fast-paced memoir, she tells us of the frustrations and triumphs of her storied career as the first American woman to walk in space and how she came to deploy the Hubble in orbit. A page-turner, Sullivan's memoir is for more than space buffs. It's for anyone who loves a good read about an adventurous life written by the person who lived it."
— Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys/October Sky

From the Publisher

11/01/2019

The Hubble Telescope was the first space-based optical telescope to capture images from the far reaches of the universe. Retired NASA astronaut Sullivan—the first American woman to do a spacewalk—details the ingenuity, hard work, and dedication she and other astronauts and engineers put into the launch, repair, and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope. She intersperses biographical highlights (PhD in geology, captain in the Navy reserve, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator) with her account of being selected to be a Shuttle astronaut specializing in Extravehicular Activity (EVA). She served on three missions, including the one that launched and deployed Hubble. She also assisted her crewmate Bruce McCandless in helping the engineers design and innovate tools that would be used to do EVA maintenance on Hubble, and, later, to repair the infamous, flawed mirror that prevented the telescope from producing the stunning images it does now. VERDICT An accessible, engaging read for students of engineering and the history of technology and generalist readers interested in NASA history.—Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Library Journal

2019-09-11
A retired astronaut's memoir of that most celebrated eye in the sky, the Hubble Space Telescope.

Hubble has only improved with age, being inherently maintainable in design and open to innovation since its deployment in 1990. Though it was ridiculed when its initial photographs were unrefined, it has since been fixed and upgraded multiple times, with amazing results. Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, was on the shuttle involved in deploying the Hubble, and she spent years on the design and capabilities of the telescope. Her motives for writing this book were to bring to light the practical reality of tending to a telescope in orbit and to show what it took in terms of experimentation—tools, support equipment, operating procedures, etc. She also wanted to sing the praises of the engineers and astronauts who invented, produced, and tested all the maintenance features of the telescope. As a participant in and observer of the events, Sullivan had a prime seat to the thinking that goes into what makes something maintainable: "able to be sustained or restored to proper operating condition." She clearly describes the taxing innovation and training involved, which included such rigors as reliability analysis, predictive maintenance modeling, and basic principles of human factors engineering in assessing every dimension of every component on the telescope. In the process, she delves into the history of the space shuttle, chronicling its many highs and the lowest of its lows, the Challenger tragedy of 1986. As a participant, it was Sullivan's job to embark on a space walk to the telescope should anything go awry during its deployment, and she spent years in preparation for such an event. Throughout the narrative, her easy hand with details and infectious enthusiasm make for a winning combination.

A smooth delivery of the nit and grit behind the success of the Hubble.

Kirkus Reviews