Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Blog

I just interviewed astronaut Richard “Rick” M. Linnehan who flew on the last HST servicing mission, SM3B. What a cool guy!

Linnehan has six EVAs  (Extravehicular Activities – better known as spacewalks) under his belt, including some for STS-109 for SM3B.  He knows, firsthand, how complex these activities are.

Colleen: The astronauts’ job for SM4 is quite complex.

Linnehan: Yes, but leave it to Goddard (Goddard Space Flight Center) and Ball Aerospace and the Hubble team to come up with the right solution – in this case the capture plates. In my opinion they are the most practical, crack team that NASA has. You can always do more than you think you can.  I actually did the preliminary underwater testing for SM4.

Astronaut Rick Linnehan

Colleen: What about Hubble?  You’ve been there and helped repair it.

Linnehan: Hubble is NASA’s crown jewel. It’s probably the most important telescope of our time. When people look back at history, Hubble and the advancements in astronomy it’s given us will be remembered.

Colleen: What are the astronauts feeling right now?

Linnehan: Well, there’s some trepidation but these folks have trained and trained and trained. They are prepared and they want to get going and to do the best job they can. When preparing for a mission, you live, breath and sleep it – you even dream about it. They’re not going to be anymore proficient than they are at this moment. At the same time, they are human and they have emotions.  They all have families and they enter this knowing there’s a risk but hoping for the best.