This morning at 8:39 am PDT, Space Shuttle Atlantis and her crew returned safely home to Planet Earth from the STS-125 mission to repair and upgrade the incredible Hubble Space Telescope.
STS-125 was the riskiest shuttle flight since the Columbia accident because Atlantis had to match Hubble’s orbit. Had there been a serious problem with Atlantis, it would have been unable to take refuge at the International Space Station because the difference in the orbits is too great. In NASA’s judgement, Hubble’s scientific value justified the risk of sending seven astronauts on this mission. But spaceflight is always a difficult, dangerous business, and the risks were real.
Because of this, NASA kept Space Shuttle Endeavour on the launch pad, ready for launch during most of the STS-125 flight. The rescue mission was code-named STS-400. It was the shuttle mission that NASA hoped it would never have to fly. STS-400 planning flight director Paul Dye asked me to design an unofficial Space Rescue patch for his team. Like Paul and his team, I’m relieved that this one never had to be used.
Shuttle landing photo from nasa-tv and nasaspaceflight.com.
-Mike
(Below) The greatest gift ever, the Hubble Space Telescope.
And here is the image that went up moments ago on one of the big screens at Mission Control in Houston, courtesy of JSC Ground Control Officer Bill Foster.
It’s great that they made it home safe. Now NASA has to spend $2 million extra to ship the shuttle back to Florida but I’m sure they feel it’s worth it to get those brave astronauts back home safely.
The Hubble is definitely one of the greatest scientific achievements of our time and the pictures it takes are invaluable. I look forward to seeing what it does once the new upgrades are online.
Great job on the rescue mission patch, Mike. It’s a good thing they didn’t have to use it.
Another fantastic mission.
Mike’s patch is a sobering reminder of how dangerous these things still are. But I’m glad to know that NASA is actually planning for a worst-case scenario, should it occur. I wonder how it would work, though. Endeavour must be fitted with additional seats, since no mission has ever flown with nine astronauts that I know of. I’m assuming Endeavour would take off with a pilot and co-pilot.
The patch looks great, thankfully it didn’t have to be used. Like don said, it’s nice to know NASA actually puts the planning into sending a 2nd shuttle up in the case of an emergencey. I’m also curious, like Don, how the shuttle would be rigged to take into account extra passengers.
STS-400 would have flown with a crew of four. It would have been an incredibly complicated mission, with a lot of things that have never been attempted before. Here’s a glimpse into what it would have entailed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-400
Now that STS-400 is not needed, Space Shuttle Endeavour is undergoing preparations for her next mission, STS-127 to the International Space Station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-127
Welcome home, indeed!! I like the patch, Mike, simplicity at it’s best. Two shuttles will hopefully never had to meet in space in a rescue operation, but I like the appearance of them working together in the stars. It’s nice that your mission patch shared the big screen with these talented and dedicated astronauts.
Definitely looking forward to some new and even more fantastic images from Hubble. Of course they didn’t risk their lives so gawkers like me could enjoy the view…It’s going to be most exciting to see what new information on the universe will be revealed in the coming months!!
Hmm, maybe Diet Smith and his space coupe will be seen racing out there among the stars, broadcasting television shows to whoever will watch.
Good thing they landed safely and what are actually 2 millions compared to the whole NASA budget. I wonder how they will service hubble with the Orion(?) typ of spacecraft.
Cheers
Thorsten
The patch and the scenario calls to mind the NX-02 Columbia to NX-01 Enterprise rescue. Of course while that might make for dramatic television it’s much better that drama did not have to play out in real life.
Huzzah!!!
*applause*
I read this interesting take on Hubble repair missions, that it makes more sense financially/logistically/etc. to just continually build newer updated versions and lauch them instead of repairing/upgrading an existing telescope. Sort of like how spy satellites are managed. So instead of one (Hubble) upgraded and repaired telescope, by now we’d have like 5 Hubbles with various capabilities, and that at least some of them would be working simultaneously. I don’t know if this idea stands up under scrutiny, because it kind of imagines a scenario that would have had to be in place since the beginning, since Hubble was first launched nearly unusable. I suppose the argument would be, just never do that to begin with, but…
Anyway, I’m glad the mission happened and was a success.
Glad everyone got home! And the Hubble is incredibly important to our explorations and discoveries of space so I’m glad they upgraded it sucessfully.
Is this the first time NASA has ever had a standby shuttle waiting to help? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of it before.
“I wonder how they will service hubble with the Orion(?) typ of spacecraft. – Thorsten Wieking”
Sorry Thorsten, but Hubble’s on it’s own for now on. Everyone’s hoping she is going to last until 2020, when she reaches her life expectancy and dies in a brilliant fireball. And then there is her replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope, which is to be launched in 2013.
Anyhow, I’m glad they are back home. Though it’s ashame Florida has been full of storms lately. I was hoping my nephew would get a chance to see the Shuttle land. He was visiting the Space Center this weekend and was excited when I told him his visit coincidented with the landing of Altantis.
:Is this the first time NASA has ever had a standby shuttle waiting to help? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of it before. -Matt Wright”
That’s been NASA’s policy since the Columbia Tragedy, to have a rescue shuttle ready on the pad for “just in case”.
Thanks Scott, that makes sense.
I am so glad everything went well with the repairs and return. I’m looking forward to many fantastic images.
Is there a cooler thing that to have REAL and Star Trek Logos designed by one and the same person!
Just a shame I am no longer at the Edwards AFB where I was Friday a week ago on vacation, now I’m back across the Atlantic…
You’re welcome, Matt!
I did wonder why I saw one picture showing two shuttles on launchpads at the same time. . . Now I know! Thanks Doug (and Mike)!
How about the Kepler mission? Anyone else here keeping an eye on the reports from that front?
Personally I think it’s time we come up with a new space shuttle design. Too bad NASA aint knocking on your door Doug.
i had a feeling they would have to land at Edwards…now another 1.8 million to send it back to KSC. At least they’re home safe though.
That’s ok, I live in Denver now and our airport is meant to be an aux site for emergency landing. Imagine how much it would be to transport the shuttle from Colorado to Texas or Florida or wherever.
Well a successful mission all round, with some fantastic vision of the numerous amazing space walks to repair Hubble.
Now I’ve heard of going out on a limb….but this is ridiculous
Conrats to all for a safe mission, and thanks to all you American posters here for spending your tax dollars on NASA.
The most we can manage in Australia is shooting up a few rockets from the desert (Woomera) to test hypersonic speeds with your Air Force…..whoopie!!
Mark, I’d call the the ulitmate limb, the ultimate risk and the ultimate view.
I’m just glad they’re all on the ground and safe after that amazing mission.
Seconded from Canada, with thanks for hosting our astronauts past and future. Like the Australian contingent, though, I would love to see us get our own infrastructure up and running at long last for both co-operative and competitive ventures.
Dwight, I’m right with you there. Nothing like healthy competition to get people motivated, but also often leads to further innovations. Hey, it worked for the Space Race.
“How about the Kepler mission? Anyone else here keeping an eye on the reports from that front?” – Dwight
She was launched in March and working fine. Should be getting the first images in a few weeks.
“Personally I think it’s time we come up with a new space shuttle design. Too bad NASA aint knocking on your door Doug.” -Hobbes.
Well I’m sure Doug, Mike, and the others can come up with some great designs. But unfortunately, in order for there to be another generation of Space Shuttle, scientists would have to develop a real Impulse Engine that would allow a spacecraft to fly directly into space. Right now, we are limited by Liquid and Solid propulsion. Nuclear would be feasable if it wasn’t for the radiation, and Ion Engines that currently exist have no thrust on the ground to do so.
BTW, I don’t recall Denver being on the list for Emergency Sites. However White Sands is still listed.
I watched these guys live online repair Hubble. Some amazing stuff. It’s a shame that the Shuttle fleet will be put into retirement and man (and woman) may be taking a long break from space.
Nothing to add here beyond “thank God they’re some safe” and “job very well done!”
Welcome home Atlantis and great work on accomplishing a dangerous, but worthwhile mission!
Love the patch for Endeavour and share your sentiments, Mike, in that I’m glad it didn’t have to be used!
So weird and cool how life has mimicked art and then vice versa – the first shuttle gets the name Enterprise because of Star Trek, then the NX-01 gets the name Enterprise (in-universe) presumably because of the shuttle. Add to that how Mike does patches for both – awesome stuff!
Re the rescue contingency, reminds me of the episode of The West Wing when a shuttle or the ISS (can’t remember which) gets into difficulties, stranding an astronaut (WEST WING SPOILER TO FOLLOW…).
Due to circumstances NASA can’t ready another shuttle in time. In the show one of the characters – the brother of the astronaut I believe – leaks that the U.S. military have their own dedicated shuttle, which is subsequently implied in the show to have been used to make the rescue.
Makes you wonder if this extra military shuttle exists in real life…
On another note, Doug as designer of the NX, did you intend for the ships to follow the names of the shuttles or was that a writers decision? (either way it’s a really nice touch). I know one of the recent Pocket Books novels mentioned the NX-03 Challenger, which follows the convention. In one episode (‘Fortunate Son’?) I think it was stated that there would be four NX-class ships, so do you approve Discovery as the name of the so far never mentioned NX-04?
(Or if Michael A. Martin is out there, any chance of a hint re the name of the NX-04 from the forthcoming Romulan War novel?)
Cheers!
Or Andy Mangels. I understand he’s around the web as well. Usually drops in on TrekBBS from time to time.
Mark Gill: I did a little bit of work for the West Wing episode where the astronauts were stranded up on the space station. I did a diagram of the station for one of the secondary screens in the Situation Room set. As usual for television, there was not much time to do the job, and there was not enough time for the production to send me a script. The real-life International Space Station always has a Soyuz lifeboat standing by, but I decided not to show the Soyuz, just in case the script called for the astronauts to be stranded up there.
“Makes you wonder if this extra military shuttle exists in real life. -Mark Gil”
Really, no. There’s no place to covertly launch it. But the Shuttle was intended to be launched from Vandenberg AFB, CA (for Military only missions) in the early 80s. You can find actual declassified photos of the Enterprise on the Launch pad in a full mockup. Like here:
http://galaxywire.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/space_shuttle_enterprise_in_launch_configuration_vandenberg_air_force_base.jpg
Star Trek, NASA, AND The West Wing? You surely have the world’s coolest job, Mike!
Great image Scott, never realised they actually stacked up Enterprise like that. Also didn’t realise Vandenburg had been abandoned as a launch site.
When the shuttles are retired next year it will truly be the end of an era. The Orion/Ares/Constellation project is exciting, but it’s a shame the whole spaceplane concept has been shelved – looks like we’ll never actually see the X-33 from the Enterprise opening sequence for real.
Mike: congrats on you contribution to ‘real space’ and carrying your talent to the final frontier.
And to those who may be currently opening those inky depths, or currently studying to do so, my appreciation of opening our hearts and minds to a place bigger than our personal perceptions.
The DC