Book ID: CBB905524834

Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut's Story of Invention (2019)

unapi

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 of 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.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB905524834/

Similar Citations

Book Christopher Gainor; Michele Ostovar; (2021)
Not Yet Imagined: A Study of Hubble Space Telescope Operations (/isis/citation/CBB744617492/)

Book Zimmerman, Robert; (2008)
The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It (/isis/citation/CBB000831282/)

Book Neufeld, Michael J.; (2013)
Spacefarers: Images of Astronauts and Cosmonauts in the Heroic Era of Spaceflight (/isis/citation/CBB001201283/)

Book Conway, Erik M.; (2015)
Exploration and Engineering: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Quest for Mars (/isis/citation/CBB001422612/)

Book DeVorkin, David H.; Smith, Robert W.; (2004)
The Hubble Space Telescope: Imaging the Universe (/isis/citation/CBB000771518/)

Article Kane Mullen; (2020)
Temporary Measures: Women Computers at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1890–1895 (/isis/citation/CBB011712539/)

Article Maria Almeida; Vitor Bonifácio; (2023)
Carlos Bettencourt Faria’s Dream: The Mulemba Astronomical Observatory at Luanda in Angola (/isis/citation/CBB427973226/)

Book Kessler, Elizabeth A.; (2012)
Picturing the Cosmos: Hubble Space Telescope Images and the Astronomical Sublime (/isis/citation/CBB001450996/)

Book Hamel, Jürgen; Keil, Inge; (2007)
Der Meister und die Fernrohre: Das Wechselspiel zwischen Astronomie und Optik in der Geschichte (/isis/citation/CBB000930172/)

Book McCray, W. Patrick; (2004)
Giant Telescopes: Astronomical Ambition and the Promise of Technology (/isis/citation/CBB000330964/)

Article Talebian, Mohammad; Talebian, Ehsan; (2012)
Alenush Terian: The Iranian Solar Mother (/isis/citation/CBB001221646/)

Book Ansari, Anousheh; Hickam, Homer H.; (2010)
My Dream of Stars: From Daughter of Iran to Space Pioneer (/isis/citation/CBB001032642/)

Book Leverington, David; (2000)
New Cosmic Horizons: Space Astronomy from the V2 to the Hubble Space Telescope (/isis/citation/CBB000101887/)

Article Zijlstra, Albert A.; Davis, Richard J.; (2012)
Sir Bernard Lovell (1913--2012) (/isis/citation/CBB001320464/)

Book Vertesi, Janet Amelia; (2015)
Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars (/isis/citation/CBB001510006/)

Book Farquhar, Robert W.; (2011)
Fifty Years on the Space Frontier: Halo Orbits, Comets, Asteroids, and More (/isis/citation/CBB001252441/)

Article Hilmar W. Duerbeck; Wolfgang R. Dick; (2018)
Das Observatorium Hoher List der Universitäts-Sternwarte Bonn (/isis/citation/CBB519606261/)

Authors & Contributors
Maria Almeida
Mullen, Kane
Michele Ostovar
Gilmore, Alan
Zimmermann, Robert
Zijlstra, Albert A.
Concepts
Astronomy
Telescopes
Space research and exploration
Astronomical observatories
Biographies
Space travel; space flight
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
20th century
20th century, early
19th century
Places
United States
Iran
Angola
Russia
New Zealand
Germany
Institutions
Hubble Space Telescope
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mars Exploration Rover Mission (U.S.)
Bonn University
Royal Observatory Greenwich
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment