Handprints on Hubble

Starred review from September 9, 2019
Sullivan, the first female astronaut to do a space walk, debuts with an accessible and fascinating memoir of her experiences as a pioneering scientist, highlighted by her work on the Hubble space telescope. Beginning with joining NASA in 1978, as part of the first new batch of astronauts in nine years, she takes readers through a career arc that culminated in joining the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as under-secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. She focuses on her time at NASA, where she was part of a team responsible for the maintenance and repairs of Hubble, and involved in its launch. As Sullivan describes, with just the right amount of detail, painstaking preparations were required before Hubble launched—and even afterwards, a minuscule error imperiled the multibillion-dollar project, requiring an in-space repair mission. Sullivan is the perfect narrator to explain the underpinnings of the ambitious project and why it proved worthwhile—namely, that the images it captured greatly expanded humanity’s understanding of the birth of stars, the rate of the universe’s expansion, and other cosmic phenomena. Sullivan’s fine volume shines a light on the nuts-and-bolts tasks that make extraordinary endeavors possible.

November 1, 2019

The Hubble Telescope was the first space-based optical telescope to capture images from the far reaches of the universe. Retired NASA astronaut Sullivan--the first American woman to do a spacewalk--details the ingenuity, hard work, and dedication she and other astronauts and engineers put into the launch, repair, and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope. She intersperses biographical highlights (PhD in geology, captain in the Navy reserve, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator) with her account of being selected to be a Shuttle astronaut specializing in Extravehicular Activity (EVA). She served on three missions, including the one that launched and deployed Hubble. She also assisted her crewmate Bruce McCandless in helping the engineers design and innovate tools that would be used to do EVA maintenance on Hubble, and, later, to repair the infamous, flawed mirror that prevented the telescope from producing the stunning images it does now. VERDICT An accessible, engaging read for students of engineering and the history of technology and generalist readers interested in NASA history.--Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2019
A retired astronaut's memoir of that most celebrated eye in the sky, the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble has only improved with age, being inherently maintainable in design and open to innovation since its deployment in 1990. Though it was ridiculed when its initial photographs were unrefined, it has since been fixed and upgraded multiple times, with amazing results. Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space, was on the shuttle involved in deploying the Hubble, and she spent years on the design and capabilities of the telescope. Her motives for writing this book were to bring to light the practical reality of tending to a telescope in orbit and to show what it took in terms of experimentation--tools, support equipment, operating procedures, etc. She also wanted to sing the praises of the engineers and astronauts who invented, produced, and tested all the maintenance features of the telescope. As a participant in and observer of the events, Sullivan had a prime seat to the thinking that goes into what makes something maintainable: "able to be sustained or restored to proper operating condition." She clearly describes the taxing innovation and training involved, which included such rigors as reliability analysis, predictive maintenance modeling, and basic principles of human factors engineering in assessing every dimension of every component on the telescope. In the process, she delves into the history of the space shuttle, chronicling its many highs and the lowest of its lows, the Challenger tragedy of 1986. As a participant, it was Sullivan's job to embark on a space walk to the telescope should anything go awry during its deployment, and she spent years in preparation for such an event. Throughout the narrative, her easy hand with details and infectious enthusiasm make for a winning combination. A smooth delivery of the nit and grit behind the success of the Hubble.

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