By the time the Hubble Space Telescope was nearing its 10th anniversary in space it had
already become the gold standard for modern day astronomy. Hubble had grown into an indispensable
tool used by scientists all around the globe to take an inside look into the universe around us.
Everything was great, flawless even, until something unexpected started to creep its
way into the picture.
"In the last month, namely in November 13th, the fourth of six gyros
that are on board Hubble failed, and that left only two operational gyros."
Lights out. Hubble's gyros,
which are needed to accurately point the telescope, were failing. What was nasa supposed to do?
Cue servicing mission 3A.
[ RANDOM AUDIO ]
By 1999, Hubble was about to make its mark in the 21st century.
And as that turn of the century neared, Hubble was also due for another servicing mission.
Just like the previous two missions to Hubble servicing mission 3, planned for the year 2000,
was going to upgrade and refurbish the telescope.
However, without warning, Hubble's gyroscopes began to fail over a year before servicing
mission astronauts were scheduled to launch.
"The gyros of course are are required for the
science mission, they're required for the extremely accurate pointing. We've honed in onto a wire there
that is broken and we think that is the reason why the gyros have failed."
So Hubble needed three gyroscopes to continue to do science
and by April 20, 1999 that's all Hubble had.
Swiftly NASA declared a Hubble emergency and split the upcoming servicing mission into two parts.
Servicing mission 3A would mainly tackle the gyroscope failures and servicing mission 3B
would encompass the rest of the maintenance that Hubble didn't need right away.
It was now crunch time, not only did NASA have to prepare an extra shuttle mission, but the
astronauts now had to go into overdrive to prepare for the upcoming mission now scheduled for October.
And then when everything seemed to be more under control news broke: the fourth gyro failed.
"Today it's sitting up there with itself in safe mode and that again shows how important the
serviceability is to this facility."
Hubble was now in safe mode which meant that the telescope's eyes
were temporarily closed to science. The servicing mission was more critical than ever before.
And after multiple maintenance and wiring checks delayed the shuttle launch
on December 19, 1999 the team of servicing mission 3A was finally
able to make their mark on history.
"And liftoff of the Space Shuttle Discovery
on a mission to repair the Hubble space telescope as we venture into the 21st century!"
"Roger roll discovery!"
"Houston is now controlling the roll maneuver is complete
Discovery is now in a heads down position on course for a 28.5 degree 310 nautical mile orbit."
Right away the team of seven astronauts went to work. This eight-day mission included three
spacewalks to Hubble, the first of which replaced all of the gyroscopes.
Now Hubble was able to be accurately positioned and stay locked on to its celestial targets.
Not only that, the team behind servicing mission 3A refurbished Hubble's fine guidance sensor
for even greater precision in pointing the telescope,
fixed damaged thermal blankets that protect the electronics housed inside of Hubble,
installed a new computer 20 times faster than Hubble's original computer, replaced old tape
recorders with a new solid state recorder for a greater efficiency in Hubble's data management,
and fixed the spacecraft's S-Band transmitter to continue to relay data to the scientists on
the ground. and on Christmas day 1999 Hubble was released back into the stars ready to uncover
new discoveries that lie ahead. Servicing Mission 3A proved that NASA could not
only be quick on its feet in dire circumstances, but perform as a team
that is united around keeping our eyes open to the universe for many years to come.
[ INSPIRING MUSIC ]