Reaching for Hubble
A specialist in high-energy astrophysics, Grunsfeld was tapped by NASA to join the astronaut corps in 1992 and flew an astronomy mission aboard shuttle Endeavour three years later.
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Working around the clock in two shifts, Grunsfeld and his crewmates used shuttle-borne ultraviolet telescopes to study hot stars and distant galaxies on that flight.
He returned to space in early 1997 on a shuttle mission to Russia's space station Mir, and then two years later, Grunsfeld took on the most important assignment of his life: Waking Hubble up from five weeks of scientific hibernation.
Flying on an emergency mission in December 1999, Grunsfeld and another spacewalking astronaut skillfully fixed a crucial pointing control system that had failed the month before, bringing a halt to all Hubble observations.
The repair work revived an otherwise comatose observatory, and it also gave Grunsfeld -- a self-proclaimed "Hubble hugger" -- the unique thrill of working on one of the world's most famous telescopes.
"I think on the last mission I was a little unsure how I'd feel when I actually got up close and personal with Hubble," Grunsfeld said, adding that he was momentarily overcome with emotion when he first laid a gloved hand on the observatory.
"I just reached out with my index finger and touched Hubble, and it was kind of like electricity. I thought, yeah, it really is Hubble and it's really amazing that I'm up here looking around, and there's a beautiful blue planet Earth, and the space shuttle, and the blackness of space. It truly was a magical and electrifying moment," he recalled.
"The closest analogy is that astronomers love their telescopes. I observed on a 60-inch telescope at Mount Palomar -- the small cousin of the 200-inch. And each time I'd drive up to the mountain, there was a little bit of excitement, as I would get closer and closer. And I have that same excitement about going to work on Hubble."
Grunsfeld, in fact, considers the upcoming Hubble mission a pilgrimage of sorts.
"There's a certain magic about going to a large telescope, going to an observatory, and it's something that I think is encoded in our make-up," he said.
"You know, for thousands of years, we've had astronomers -- who in some cases in ancient times were wizards -- going out at night and observing the stars. I think it's a manifestation of our wonder and awe at the beauty of the universe, and so going up to the Hubble is kind of a pilgrimage to the great shrine of astronomy."
Coming hand in hand with that journey, however, is a heavy responsibility.
Thousands of astronomers around the world are counting on the shuttle crew to carry out inherently difficult servicing work without doing irreparable damage the iconic observatory -- a fact not lost on Grunsfeld.
"We have a lot of tasks to complete in a finite amount of time, and there's a lot of pressure to perform these tasks and do them in a very succinct fashion," Grunsfeld said.
He and his spacewalking crewmates, consequently, tend to use humor to ward off any nervousness or the fear of failure.
"I kind of joke about it," Grunsfeld said. "If we mess this up, I'll never be able to show my face at an American Astronomical Society meeting again."
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