ONLINE: The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has astonished the world during its 30-plus years of service. But what did it take to prepare HST to launch? This lecture-based course provides a first-hand account of how NASA did exactly that. The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) team worked tirelessly to plan, test and launch the telescope. During our class sessions, students will go behind the scenes with the NASA payload manager for this historic mission. You will learn how NASA KSC prepared shuttles, satellites and other payloads for launch. We will discuss the challenges the team faced with HST and how they developed unique, amazing and sometimes humorous solutions to these problems. You will follow the telescope from California to KSC’s Vertical Processing Facility, and then to the launch pad for countdown and liftoff. You will understand the creativity and expertise required to send payloads into space, and appreciate what the KSC team did to get this amazing scientific instrument off the ground. | Lecture + Q&A.
Max enrollment: 200.
Class sessions are recorded.
