Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut’s Story of Invention Audiobook (Free)

The first American woman to walk in space recounts her experience as part of the team that launched, rescued, repaired, and maintained the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionized our understanding of the universe. They have, among many other accomplishments, revealed a large number of galaxies in what appeared to be clear areas of sky; transformed our understanding of black holes; present dwarf planets with moons orbiting various other stars; and measured precisely how fast the universe is on the subject of Handprints on Hubble: An Astronaut’s Story of Invention expanding. In Handprints on Hubble, retired astronaut Kathryn Sullivan details her work on the NASA team that made all of this feasible. Sullivan, the initial American female to walk in space, recounts how she and other astronauts, technical engineers, and scientists released, rescued, fixed, and managed Hubble, the most productive observatory ever constructed. On the way, Sullivan chronicles her early lifestyle as a ‘Sputnik Baby,’ her way to NASA through oceanography, and her initiation into the space program as you of ‘thirty-five fresh men.’ (She was also one of the initial six women to become listed on NASA’s storied astronaut corps.) She describes in vibrant detail what liftoff feels as though inside a spacecraft (it’s like ‘getting in an earthquake and a fighter plane at the same time’), displays us the watch from a spacewalk, and recounts the short-term grounding from the shuttle system after the Challenger disaster. Sullivan clarifies that ‘maintainability’ was designed into Hubble, and she identifies the task of inventing the tools and procedures that produced on-orbit maintenance possible. Because in-flight repair and up grade was part of the strategy, NASA was able to fix a significant defect in Hubble’s mirrors?leaving literal and metaphorical ‘handprints on Hubble.’