171-Hubble Tool Time Episode 6: Servicing Mission 4

Retired NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld hosts this six-part mini-series about the tools used on the Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions. Hubble was uniquely designed to be serviced in space so that components could be repaired and upgraded. Astronauts using custom-designed tools performed challenging spacewalks on five servicing missions from 1993 to 2009 to keep Hubble operating so that it could change our fundamental understanding of the universe.

Join John, EVA engineer Ed Rezac, and astronaut trainer Christy Hansen in this episode of Hubble Tool Time to learn about creating a Fastener Capture Plate to capture 111 screws in order to repair the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on Servicing Mission 4 in 2009.

In addition to enabling Hubble’s scientific discoveries, the tools developed by teams at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and tested in collaboration with the Johnson Space Center furthered NASA’s human exploration capabilities. These tools and the knowledge gleaned from the Hubble servicing missions are used today by astronauts on the International Space Station, and will be critical to NASA’s future crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.