TV Program Description
Premiere Broadcast on PBS: October 13, 2009
The best-known scientific instrument in history was dying.
After nearly 20 years in space and hundreds of thousands of
spectacular images, the Hubble Space Telescope's gyroscopes
and sensors were failing, its batteries running down, and some
of its instruments were already dead. The only hope to save
Hubble was a mission so dangerous that in 2004 NASA cancelled
it because it was considered too risky.
Scientists and the general public alike stubbornly refused to
abandon the telescope, and a new NASA administrator revived
the mission. This program takes viewers behind the scenes on a
riveting journey with the team of astronauts and engineers
charged with saving the famous "orbiting observatory" against
all odds.
Hubble had been serviced four times before, including the
famous 1993 repair mission that had corrected its blurred
vision. But all previous missions had involved replacements,
not actual repairs. Astronauts undid latches, removed a balky
module, and replaced it with a new one. This mission would be
different. Two of Hubble's instruments—a camera and a
spectrograph—had died, and no replacements existed. To
revive them, astronauts would attempt procedures never before
tried in space: opening up electronic assemblies, getting
"into the guts," and performing delicate tasks previously
thought impossible.
In his latest film for NOVA, Rushmore DeNooyer weaves together
the compelling story of this dangerous 12-day mission and its
five pressure-filled spacewalks. Spacewalks are exhausting.
Astronauts must work in cramped quarters and darkness while
wearing a clumsy spacesuit. Suits are pressurized and stiff,
and every movement takes concentrated effort. The work is
hardest on the hands; moving fingers is like squeezing a
tennis ball. After eight continuous hours of exertion, it's
not uncommon for a spacewalker's fingernails to turn black and
blue and fall off. And it would all have to be done in
weightlessness, where everything floats and nothing stays put.
In space, a single screw floating loose into Hubble could ruin
the telescope. (Hear astronaut John Grunsfeld explain why
fixing Hubble is
all about the gloves.)
"At first it sounded like this would be impossible," recalls
lead spacewalker Mike Massimino. Mission Director Chuck Shaw
compares the work to neurosurgery.
For two years leading up to launch, filmmakers followed the
mission closely, with unprecedented access to every aspect of
the endeavor, from NASA's training facilities for flight
preparation to the historic mission itself. DeNooyer and his
production team followed all seven astronauts—Scott
Altman, Andrew Feustel, Michael Good, Gregory Johnson, and
Megan McArthur as well as Grunsfeld and Massimino—as
they trained extensively. He chronicled them experiencing
virtual weightlessness at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at
the Johnson Space Center in Houston and practicing best
procedures for the crucial spacewalks. (In a video short, hear
Mike Massimino talk about the challenges of
working in space.)
Following the May 2009 launch from the Kennedy Space Center in
Florida, the crew traveled 5,276,000 statute miles in 197
Earth orbits. NOVA viewers see Hubble pulled from its own
orbit by the Atlantis shuttle's huge robotic arm and
moved into the spacecraft's payload bay, where it remains
during nearly 37 hours of painstaking repairs. The
Atlantis crew followed a meticulously crafted script,
two years in the making, in order to stay on schedule, each
spacewalk carefully timed based on oxygen supply and physical
strength.
After all tasks were completed, Hubble was gently released
back into space, now 10 to 70 times more powerful than when it
was first launched—reaffirming its role as a vital
scientific resource. While "Hubble's Amazing Rescue" documents
the end of space shuttle missions to the world-famous
telescope, it also excites viewers about new images,
information, and insights that will emerge from the powerful
upgrades. DeNooyer, a veteran NOVA producer, describes Hubble
as "a time machine that shows us how the universe looked when
it was still young." (See
DeNooyer's dispatches
about the mission as it unfolded.)
Program Transcript
