"New Adventures" for Hubble and Manned Spaceflight

Those who know me, or have read more than an entry or two here on this page will know that I've long considered myself a space exploration geek/nerd/advocate and so I would be remiss if I didn't mark today as Hubble was released earlier in the day by the crew of STS-125 and Shuttle Atlantis. I shared my thoughts earlier in the week on the significance and uniqueness of this particular shuttle mission.

One thing that struck me watching yesterday as the final EVA from the shuttle airlock ever was concluded was that this is really the end of an era for the shuttle program. Aside from traveling to a space station the shuttle was really designed to do the type of work performed on this mission to capture and service satellites in orbit. With the end of STS-125 also comes the end of one of the shuttle's primary roles.  Part of the nostalgia for me is that during my lifetime NASA and the American manned space program has always meant one thing: the Space Shuttle. When I went to space camp we trained in shuttle simulators it's always just been there, much the way the space station is for the current generation.  It is weird to think that the shuttle will soon be nothing more than a museum piece or worse yet a planter for weeds in some storage yard.

I was preparing to write a longer entry with my own thoughts on the mission but then as EVA #5 (the last EVA in service of Hubble, some video highlights of the EVA.) wound to a close Astronaut John Grunsfeld radioed down these words while floating just outside the shuttle's airlock, I found them personally moving and inspiring and so I share them and echo them as far more eloquent than I might hope to produce.

Outside the airlock hatch, John Grunsfeld said, "This is a really tremendous adventure that we’ve been on, a very challenging mission. Hubble isn’t just a satellite- it’s about humanity’s quest for knowledge."

He also thanked several people who contributed to Hubble and the servicing mission, then went on to say,

"A tour de force of tools and human ingenuity. On this mission in particular, the only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. On this mission, we tried some things that some people said were impossible….We’ve achieved that, and we wish Hubble the very best. It’s really a sign of the great country that we live in that we’re able to do things like this on a marvelous spaceship, like space shuttle Atlantis. I’m convinced that if we can solve problems, like repairing Hubble, getting into space, doing the servicing we do, travelling 17,500 mph around the Earth, we can achieve other great things, like solving the energy problems and climate problems- all of the things that are in the middle of NASA’s prime and core values. As Drew and I go into the airlock, I want to wish Hubble its own set of adventures and with the new instruments that we’ve installed that it may unlock further mysteries of the universe."

Godspeed to Atlantis, her crew, the entire space shuttle fleet, and of course Hubble!