Handprints On Hubble

An Astronaut's Story of Invention

Kathryn D. Sullivan 2019 BVTN 522.2919 SUL

Kathryn D. Sullivan, born 1951, is a former oceanographer and retired astronaut, now Charles A. Lindbergh Chair of Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

Dr. Sullivan's principal assignment as an astronaut was assisting the development of EVA repairability for the Hubble Space Telescope

• 012 - 14yo, learning French and German in high school, then UC Santa Cruz for Russian, preparing for Foreign Service career. Mandatory science courses first, geology and oceanography, the latter leading to a change of majors and undergraduate research in Norway and graduate research in Canada.

• 014 - 1976, considered Woods Hole and Alvin, and satellite oceanography. Brother Grant suggested applying for Shuttle.

• 018 Told mother "when I finish my degree I either be going 200 miles up or six thousand feed down", mother's reply "Isn't there anything exciting on the surface?"
• 023 26yo PhD like Steve Hawley and Sally Ride, NASA astronaut first full-time job
• 025 TFNG - Thirty-Five New Guys (including six women)
• 033 First woman certified to fly in a pressure suit in WB-57F, female urine control "Disposable Absorption Containment Trunk, became standard equipment for all astroauts
• 035 Pete Conrad's water tank training suit, an inch too short
• 039 Assigned to ABC News for STS-1, chase plane photographer for STS-2
• 041 "cape crusader" support crew at KSC
• 044 "switch list" 2100 checks, reflexively pushed control stick button to reply to message, accidentally triggered emergency backup flight control mode,
• 047 STS-4 exchange crew, boarded shuttle after landing at Edwards for 747 ferry ride back to KSC
• 050 STS-7, first flight of 4 TFNG including Sally Ride
• 064 STS-41G October 5. 1984 with Ride, Crippen, ... Orbital Refueling System, OSTA-3 imaging radar, Earth Radiation Budget Satellite
• 085 Hubble 11,100 kg, 400,000 parts, 42,000 km wiring, Lead system engineer Jean Olivier at Marshall/Huntsville, astronomer Bob O'Dell
• 095 2.4 meter mirror, ring of equipment bays
• 098 standard fastener double height 7/16 inch hexagonal head
• 102 everything shall be tethered at all times, hooks with unlock button

• 104 T-shaped McTether pip pin

• 105 Lockheed Sunnyvale, Building 579 on 1311 Orleans Drive (now office park)

• 110 Class 10,000 Clean Room "10,000 times cleaner than room air" ... er no, ISO7, 10,000 particles per m3, 100 times better than room air

  • some semi fabs are class 1, wear a space suit!

  • M&R Maintenance and Repair team

• 124 articulating portable foot restraint, many more pages of EVA compatability (design for usability)

• 144 Power Control Unit, 34 connectors at hard-to-access door hinge side, Ron Sheffield designed adapter plates, saved Hubble in 2002

• 154 Bruce McCandless asks Secretary of Navy to make Sullivan Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Reserve

• 171 Robin Williams Good Morning Discovery, Houston radio station producer Mike Cahill "Green Acres" parody
• 199 STS-31 Hubble repair flight, LUNCH TEAM mission pin mistake

• 209 mention of 1984 STS-41 launch abort, Steve Hawley "Gee, I thought we'd be higher than this at MECO"

• 226 Served in Gulf War at Guam 1991, unclassified weather forecasts for western Pacific and Indian Oceans
• 227 back to training for STS-45 in 1993
• 229 Marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle, NOAA chief scientist, succeeded by Sullivan in May 1993
• 239 Goddard Frank Cepollina duplicated tool engineering, "Cepi blue"
• 246 STS-61 repairs Hubble focus.
• 248 1993 Collier Trophy to HST Recovery Team,
• 251 picture of handprints on dust on Hubble's outer skin