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There’s a wonderful story of dedication in The N.Y. Times’ “Scientist at Work” profile on Dr. John Grunsfeld. He’s an astronaut and has held the post of NASA Chief Scientist, but his primary career mission and passion at NASA has been as the unofficial (or maybe it is actually official!) repairman for the Hubble telescope. He’s logged 37 hours and 32 minutes of spacewalks, most of those replacing Hubble parts, many of which weren’t designed to be repaired in space. He also suffered through the abandonment of the Hubble program, a decision that almost led him to resign. But now there’s one last Hubble mission scheduled for May and Dr. Grunsfeld will pay a housecall to the telescope for the final time, allowing it to function for hopefully another 5 years. He describes his repair EVAs as Zen in space:“Once in a while the universe lets you be free alone and in peace.”

Written by ltao

April 14th, 2009 at 4:21 am

Posted in Uncategorized