Hubba Hubble

STS-125 has been an amazing mission, once again for NASA. It shouldn't be a surprise. Challenging EVAs and real-time problem solving with fixed resources is becoming ordinary business for the agency and the astronauts and the EVA support teams on the ground. Rather than seeing snags and difficulties as a bad thing, these have pushed NASA to new heights as the men and women seek solutions rather than giving up and coming home, tailed tucked firmly between legs. This is the side of the story that most of the media and a good deal of people do not see. If a solar array sticks and tears, then it’s a horrible failure that shows how incompetent NASA is, so “they” say. How many times on earth do mechanical things fail…like your car perhaps. Does your inability to start your car mean you are dim or unable to understand how to turn the key and press the gas? If your car has a problem due to normal wear and tear in everyday use, does that mean the people who built it don’t know what they are doing? But that is the reaction to EVAs that do not happen with perfection.

Let us take a new perspective and see just how enterprising, hard working and determined that NASA engineers and scientists can be. They aren’t able to run down to Home Depot or even step next door to borrow a tool. Astronauts must work with what is in the shuttle or the space station. They have a limited tool box and supplies. Remember how amazed so many were when the crew of Apollo 13 built the air canister adapter from flight check list cards, tape and other found things on the space craft? Why have we lost that sense of wonder?

The crew of STS-125 performed five incredible EVAs. They were not flawless, but did anyone really expect them to be? That would be naïve. Not only did they overcome adversity and find fixes for the problems, they made repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope that were never meant to be done in space by suited men and women. And despite the snags, they finished ahead of the timeline. Where’s the wonder over that?

In a day when we need heroes, some of the most able and obvious are being relegated to a rubbish heap of screw ups instead of celebrated for their ingenuity and determination.

Hoorah for the crew of STS-125, the tool makers, the EVA planners, the men and women who get the shuttle ready to fly and the engineers who analyze the vehicle to be certain that it flies safely.

I am rarely impressed with people, being the great cynic that I am. But I am impressed, greatly. This brings back my sense of wonder. And it really makes me miss working on the shuttle, being involved in a current flight program. But it also gives me renewed enthusiasm for the Ares program. With the difficulties we are meeting and the crushing criticism, we need the model and the lesson of determination and ingenuity. The next generation launch vehicle can be as awe inspiring as the shuttle, the station and Hubble.