CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld knows all about the anticipation and exhilaration astronomers feel when winding up steep mountain roads to nurse or work with storied observatories on planet Earth.
| STS-109 |
| For complete launch to landing coverage and the most up-to-date news about this mission, click here |
But for this accomplished astrophysicist, nothing rivals the adrenaline rush of rocketing off to the Hubble Space Telescope, and nothing could be more important than servicing an observatory of such societal significance.
"I'm a professional astrophysicist by training, and so it's a combination of Holy Grail and pilgrimage to be able to go up to the Hubble Space Telescope," said Grunsfeld, who will be making his second trip to the observatory during a shuttle mission set for launch this week.
"Servicing the Hubble Space Telescope is by far and away the most meaningful thing I've ever done in my life. People have to decide for themselves what kind of things they want to do (in life), and what they're worth risking, and for me, the Hubble is worth risking my life," he added."It's that important. It's just an incredible worldwide resource, the Hubble. It's teaching us so much about our world, about the universe, about who we are and our place in the cosmos. I mean, there aren't any more fundamental questions than that."
Suited up aboard shuttle Columbia, Grunsfeld and six other astronauts are scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center at 6:48 a.m. EST (1148 GMT) Thursday.
During five spacewalks, the crew plans to outfit Hubble with an advanced planetary camera, revive a dormant infrared science instrument, replace a faulty pointing control device, install a fresh set of solar wings and overhaul a crucial but flawed power distribution system.
Considered one of the most ambitious missions in the 21-year history of NASA's shuttle program, the flight for Grunsfeld will represent the culmination of a lifelong enchantment with stars, planets, galaxies and the universe at large.
"I've been training for this mission my whole life," he said.
A 43-year-old native of Chicago, Grunsfeld's curiosity with the cosmos was ignited when his grandmother gave him a Sears & Roebuck telescope at age six or seven.
"I don't even know if Sears makes telescopes anymore, but it was, for me, just an incredible little machine," Grunsfeld said. "And the first thing I pointed at was the moon. I really like the moon. I've always felt a kinship with the moon."
Those early observations sparked an interest in star charts and astronomy texts, which led to a philosophical fascination with the nature of physics.
His childhood idol, in fact, was Enrico Fermi, the famed Nobel Prize-winning physicist who designed the first man-made nuclear reactor and played a key role in the development of the atomic bomb.
"You know, sometimes people have sports stars (as role models). Well, I had a physicist as a hero and kind of grew up with that," Grunsfeld said.
Next page: Curious John learns physics
advertisement
