Hubble Release Video
On 18th May the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-125) disconnected from the Hubble Space Telescope after a successful mission to upgrade the instruments and replace a few parts. This is the last servicing mission and it was most likely the final time that humans would be in close, physical contact with Hubble in space. This has been a very special mission for those of us who've grown up with Hubble over the past 19 years.
Of course, only the crew of STS-125 were lucky enough to be there in person. Other Hubble fans had to live vicariously through NASA TV. At the time of the parting I was hugely disappointed to find that there was no live video of the view. This momentuous event was shown via rather disappointing computer simulations and the reactions of the people in the control room at Goddard Space Flight Centre. GSFC employees are great but they don't really cut it compared to seeing the grand old space telescope for the last time.
After a few minutes of speculation on Twitter about the possibility of bad coverage by ground stations over Africa, or cover-up conspiracies, it turned out that the downlink antenna for sending video was being used in radar mode to track Hubble. That was pretty vital so I'll let NASA off on that.
Tonight, after a plea on Twitter for pictures, Alberto Conti (STSci) pointed me to an amazing video on YouTube. The video shows the view, from inside Atlantis, of the final minutes. You see the astronauts preparating for release, moving around in the Shuttle and filming the view out of the window of the Hubble slowly drifting away with the Earth behind. It is a stunning "home video" showing a fascinating perspective that I don't think I've seen before. It is well worth six or seven minutes of your time.
Comments: Hubble Release Video
May I humbly submit that I twittered the YouTube link to this video already in the night May 19/20 and also referred to it in several blogs?
Posted by Daniel Fischer on Thursday 21st May 2009 (22:13 UTC)
Posted by Stuart on Friday 22nd May 2009 (07:39 UTC)
Great video - isn't space great!?
Posted by James on Friday 22nd May 2009 (09:35 UTC)
that was very interesting,thanks..
Posted by sohbet on Sunday 24th May 2009 (11:55 UTC)
Now that Atlantis is on the ground, i can breathe again.
Not quite 2 years ago, Andrew Feustel (from Michigan) gave a talk at our big annual public star party (we may have only had 9,000 that year). I got to meet him. He hadn't yet been chosen to do the HST mission, but it was pretty clear from his training that he was in line for it.
In his talk, he mentioned that, while HST was parked in the Shuttle bay, it could be rotated and tilted. So in this mission, and for the last time, the HST was a Dob.
It's no longer the biggest diameter astronomical telescope in space?
Posted by Stephen on Monday 25th May 2009 (02:18 UTC)
Thanks, for sharing the interesting post.
Posted by Shabnam Sultan on Tuesday 02nd Jun 2009 (11:47 UTC)
DEAR FOLKs:
ERNEST J. STERNGLASS DEVELOP'D SOME OF THE IMAGING-TECHNOLOGY WHICH IS NOW USED IN THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE ...
DURING 1947 HE SPENT A DAY WITH EINSTEIN, DISCUSSING THINGs ASTRO-PHYSICAL ...
I RECENT-LY DISCOVER'D HIS BOOK, "BEFORE THE BIG BANG" {1997}, WHICH SEEMs TO ME TO EMBODY A BELIEVE-ABLE "GRAND-UNIFICATION-THEORY" ...
ARE FOLKs AWARE OF PROFESSOR STERNGLASS's WORK ??
SINCERE-LY,
MARK "TRUTH-SEEKER" CREEK-WATER
BERKELEY, CA, USA
MARK.CREEKWATER@GMAIL.COM
Posted by MARK CREEK-WATER on Saturday 11th Jul 2009 (19:51 UTC)
DEAR FOLKS: WARM GREETINGS + MANY BLESSINGS !!
RE THE MYSTERYS OF ASTRO-PHYSICS,
I RECOMMEND ERNEST STERNGLASS'S BOOK, "BEFORE THE BIG BANG" {1997} .....
SINCERE-LY,
MARK "TRUTH-SEEKER" CREEK-WATER
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Before-the-Big-Bang/Ernest-J-Sternglass/e/9781568581897
http://www.amazon.com/Before-Big-Bang-Origins-Universe/product-reviews/1568581890/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
Posted by MARK CREEK-WATER DORAZIO on Tuesday 29th Jun 2010 (07:03 UTC)