1 00:00:13,500 --> 00:00:16,420 ASTRONAUT: Houston, Atlantis can report that the star tracker is not 2 00:00:16,420 --> 00:00:20,700 the only thing that can see a star on our horizon. 3 00:00:20,700 --> 00:00:24,300 I'm looking out the window here and it's an unbelievably beautiful site. 4 00:00:24,300 --> 00:00:29,540 Everything you're seeing is real. 5 00:00:30,500 --> 00:00:33,700 This beautiful imagery of our universe isn't 6 00:00:33,700 --> 00:00:37,420 an artist's impression, but visualisations using data 7 00:00:37,420 --> 00:00:42,660 from a telescope that orbits above our heads in space. 8 00:00:45,260 --> 00:00:50,460 A telescope that has transformed our view of the cosmos. 9 00:00:53,500 --> 00:00:57,340 The world's most famous telescope. 10 00:00:57,340 --> 00:01:00,380 Hubble. 11 00:01:00,380 --> 00:01:05,540 HST external power is complete. 12 00:01:05,580 --> 00:01:10,820 In orbit since April 1990, Hubble has travelled more 13 00:01:11,060 --> 00:01:14,100 than 6.5 billion kilometres around the Earth. 14 00:01:14,100 --> 00:01:16,340 Pushing back the frontiers of astronomy and sending back 15 00:01:16,340 --> 00:01:20,460 extraordinary pictures. 16 00:01:20,460 --> 00:01:23,740 One could argue that Hubble is not only the most successful 17 00:01:23,740 --> 00:01:26,340 telescope in human history, it's one of the most 18 00:01:26,340 --> 00:01:29,100 successful scientific experiments in human history. 19 00:01:29,100 --> 00:01:32,180 And to this day there's lots of science that you can only do 20 00:01:32,180 --> 00:01:37,460 with the Hubble Space Telescope. 21 00:01:37,540 --> 00:01:41,060 For me, Hubble represents a tremendous achievement 22 00:01:41,060 --> 00:01:46,300 of using technology in a way that actually unifies humanity. 23 00:01:47,420 --> 00:01:50,780 I love the fact that people around the world feel that it's kind 24 00:01:50,780 --> 00:01:55,940 of their own personal eye to the universe. 25 00:01:56,020 --> 00:02:01,020 What is remarkable about Hubble is its resolution. 26 00:02:01,100 --> 00:02:05,260 Hubble has been really key in shaping our understanding of how 27 00:02:05,260 --> 00:02:10,380 the universe structures itself. 28 00:02:10,460 --> 00:02:13,580 Five, four, three, two, one... 29 00:02:13,580 --> 00:02:15,620 Boom! 30 00:02:15,620 --> 00:02:19,300 Lift off! 31 00:02:20,540 --> 00:02:23,500 To celebrate the 30th anniversary of its launch, 32 00:02:23,500 --> 00:02:26,700 this is the remarkable story of how Hubble revealed the awe 33 00:02:26,700 --> 00:02:31,220 and wonder of our universe. 34 00:02:31,220 --> 00:02:35,100 And how a team of daring astronauts risked their lives with a series 35 00:02:35,100 --> 00:02:40,300 of dangerous and challenging missions to keep Hubble working. 36 00:02:41,900 --> 00:02:44,300 Story Musgrave, take one... 37 00:02:44,300 --> 00:02:46,820 Steve Smith, interview one, take one... 38 00:02:46,820 --> 00:02:48,660 Interview, John Grunsfeld, take one. 39 00:02:48,660 --> 00:02:50,980 Interview, Mike Massimino... 40 00:02:50,980 --> 00:02:56,220 Kathy Thornton, take two... 41 00:03:27,100 --> 00:03:31,220 As astronauts we can only go so far. 42 00:03:31,220 --> 00:03:34,860 Hubble shows us the beauty of what's out there and it takes us places 43 00:03:34,860 --> 00:03:38,740 where we can only imagine going. 44 00:03:38,740 --> 00:03:41,380 Well beyond our solar system. 45 00:03:41,380 --> 00:03:46,420 Well beyond our galaxy. 46 00:03:48,300 --> 00:03:52,420 Hubble is the quest for the universe. 47 00:03:52,420 --> 00:03:57,700 It's also the quest for, in a way, for who we are and who we should be. 48 00:03:57,980 --> 00:04:02,300 So it's to put ourselves in perspective. 49 00:04:02,300 --> 00:04:07,580 Who are we and who should we be and what is our future? 50 00:04:08,820 --> 00:04:14,020 Hubble is exploring the universe for us. 51 00:04:16,340 --> 00:04:21,580 Hubble was the first large optical telescope to be placed in space. 52 00:04:25,540 --> 00:04:30,060 Orbiting more than 540 kilometres above the Earth, 53 00:04:30,060 --> 00:04:33,780 it escapes the distorting effects of our planet's atmosphere 54 00:04:33,780 --> 00:04:38,820 and so has an unobstructed view of the universe. 55 00:04:38,820 --> 00:04:42,100 Hubble is orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes or so. 56 00:04:42,100 --> 00:04:44,140 All the time that Hubble's looking at something, 57 00:04:44,140 --> 00:04:48,220 it's also moving at thousands of miles an hour around the Earth. 58 00:04:48,220 --> 00:04:53,100 It's actually not as hard as it sounds. 59 00:04:53,220 --> 00:04:57,780 Hubble was basically designed with the predicate that astronauts 60 00:04:57,780 --> 00:05:02,700 would go and replace a system that would become obsolete. 61 00:05:03,100 --> 00:05:05,740 As a matter of fact, much of the science that Hubble 62 00:05:05,740 --> 00:05:11,020 is doing today was not even imagined when Hubble was originally designed. 63 00:05:12,620 --> 00:05:16,460 Hubble goes around the Earth about 15 or 16 times in a day. 64 00:05:16,460 --> 00:05:21,140 And every day has a smorgasbord of science. 65 00:05:21,140 --> 00:05:26,300 We might look at a planet for a couple of hours. 66 00:05:31,500 --> 00:05:34,660 Right now it looks like we were looking at a nearby galaxy. 67 00:05:34,660 --> 00:05:39,580 In a few more hours we might look at something completely different. 68 00:05:44,060 --> 00:05:46,100 Hubble's mission is to solve some of the biggest 69 00:05:46,100 --> 00:05:48,980 mysteries in the universe. 70 00:05:48,980 --> 00:05:54,180 It's controlled at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center. 71 00:05:56,060 --> 00:05:59,700 Right now you're standing in the Mission Operations Room. 72 00:05:59,700 --> 00:06:03,620 This is where we command Hubble. 73 00:06:03,620 --> 00:06:06,820 What you are seeing here are a bunch of displays that our flight 74 00:06:06,820 --> 00:06:10,260 operations teams use for its daily operations. 75 00:06:10,260 --> 00:06:13,100 We also have an image that shows Hubble in real time, 76 00:06:13,100 --> 00:06:15,380 it's what shows us how it's oriented in space. 77 00:06:15,380 --> 00:06:18,820 In this particular image you can see where the sun is and we've turned 78 00:06:18,820 --> 00:06:21,660 the solar panels so that they can maximise the amount of sunlight 79 00:06:21,660 --> 00:06:25,500 that's hitting it so we can produce enough electricity to not only power 80 00:06:25,500 --> 00:06:30,180 the spacecraft but also to power and recharge the batteries. 81 00:06:30,180 --> 00:06:34,460 So when we go into the shadow of Earth we can run off the batteries. 82 00:06:34,460 --> 00:06:38,100 We monitor the temperatures of various instruments and make sure 83 00:06:38,100 --> 00:06:41,020 that nothing is getting too hot or too cold. 84 00:06:41,020 --> 00:06:43,380 We also monitor the voltage levels that are in different 85 00:06:43,380 --> 00:06:45,980 parts of the spacecraft. 86 00:06:45,980 --> 00:06:49,300 So we're monitoring all the hardware on Hubble all the time to make sure 87 00:06:49,300 --> 00:06:53,580 that it's all working properly and that it's all safe. 88 00:06:53,580 --> 00:06:56,780 Hubble is the only major general purpose observatory ever designed 89 00:06:56,780 --> 00:07:01,620 to be looked after by astronauts. 90 00:07:02,300 --> 00:07:04,940 On five daring missions, these astronauts have 91 00:07:04,940 --> 00:07:08,340 risked their lives on dangerous spacewalks to repair 92 00:07:08,340 --> 00:07:13,220 and upgrade Hubble. 93 00:07:14,660 --> 00:07:19,740 Steve Smith, my mentor, helped me learn how to spacewalk. 94 00:07:19,780 --> 00:07:23,260 And still is a very close friend of mine. 95 00:07:23,260 --> 00:07:24,620 And we were neighbours. 96 00:07:24,620 --> 00:07:26,060 Our kids were the same age. 97 00:07:26,060 --> 00:07:30,540 We spent a lot of time together socially. 98 00:07:30,540 --> 00:07:35,780 Kathryn is this very articulate, very thoughtful person. 99 00:07:36,620 --> 00:07:41,500 KT was incredibly helpful in working the very minute details 100 00:07:41,500 --> 00:07:46,540 with her experience and also with her personality. 101 00:07:49,620 --> 00:07:52,260 Story is an amazing guy. 102 00:07:52,260 --> 00:07:55,300 He's got like nine degrees or something. 103 00:07:55,300 --> 00:07:58,900 He's always a student, always interested, always curious. 104 00:07:58,900 --> 00:08:00,380 He keeps you laughing. 105 00:08:00,380 --> 00:08:02,780 He keeps you guessing what he's going to say next. 106 00:08:02,780 --> 00:08:07,060 I've enjoyed working with Story. 107 00:08:08,060 --> 00:08:09,620 John is a PhD. 108 00:08:09,620 --> 00:08:12,620 Very well educated, very deep into astronomy and so flying 109 00:08:12,620 --> 00:08:15,940 with him was very educational. 110 00:08:15,940 --> 00:08:17,820 He's never nervous about anything. 111 00:08:17,820 --> 00:08:21,740 Really professional. 112 00:08:22,540 --> 00:08:26,940 I think we're kind of a special band. 113 00:08:26,940 --> 00:08:30,660 We all rally around this cause of upgrading and repairing 114 00:08:30,660 --> 00:08:33,220 the Hubble Space Telescope, which has produced such 115 00:08:33,220 --> 00:08:37,140 extraordinary science. 116 00:08:37,140 --> 00:08:41,860 The theme that I was taught and accepted was every space flight 117 00:08:41,860 --> 00:08:45,020 is a good space flight. 118 00:08:45,020 --> 00:08:48,700 And then some people would say "but some are better than others." 119 00:08:48,700 --> 00:08:50,900 The astronauts' journey to Hubble is certainly not 120 00:08:50,900 --> 00:08:53,780 for the faint-hearted. 121 00:08:53,780 --> 00:08:57,660 Strapped to a giant rocket that's about to go from zero to more 122 00:08:57,660 --> 00:09:02,900 than 28,000 kilometres per hour in just eight-and-a-half minutes. 123 00:09:03,420 --> 00:09:06,340 About one or two minutes before launch the spaceship starts to move 124 00:09:06,340 --> 00:09:08,220 a little bit and that's because the engines 125 00:09:08,220 --> 00:09:10,860 are being checked to make sure they can gimble. 126 00:09:10,860 --> 00:09:13,940 So you can feel the spaceship moving left and right a little bit 127 00:09:13,940 --> 00:09:16,700 and you hear some funny sounds as pumps start. 128 00:09:16,700 --> 00:09:19,700 T-minus 10... 129 00:09:19,700 --> 00:09:23,860 So there's this rumble and a shaking and so you know that those beasts 130 00:09:23,860 --> 00:09:26,980 are alive in the back there. 131 00:09:26,980 --> 00:09:29,300 It's a monster, it's a beast. 132 00:09:29,300 --> 00:09:33,380 And it has you. 133 00:09:33,380 --> 00:09:37,620 You're at its mercy. 134 00:10:05,220 --> 00:10:08,100 After two minutes, when the main engines are shut down and separate, 135 00:10:08,100 --> 00:10:13,340 it's a very, very smooth ride. 136 00:10:14,900 --> 00:10:17,820 You feel the acceleration building up so you get heavier and heavier 137 00:10:17,820 --> 00:10:20,540 and heavier in your seat. 138 00:10:20,540 --> 00:10:21,940 And in eight-and-a-half minutes it's over. 139 00:10:21,940 --> 00:10:24,780 You go from feeling like there's this gorilla sitting on your chest 140 00:10:24,780 --> 00:10:27,180 to floating instantly. 141 00:10:27,180 --> 00:10:32,180 It's an amazing feeling. 142 00:10:36,340 --> 00:10:38,820 You can see it out on the horizon. 143 00:10:38,820 --> 00:10:41,260 It shows up, it looks like a star out there. 144 00:10:41,260 --> 00:10:44,060 And then you get closer and closer and closer and it gets 145 00:10:44,060 --> 00:10:46,860 to be a brighter star. 146 00:10:46,860 --> 00:10:50,420 So you keep pushing your velocity more and more. 147 00:10:50,420 --> 00:10:54,420 So if the Earth is like this you just keep creeping up. 148 00:10:54,420 --> 00:10:57,700 And then you're there. 149 00:10:57,700 --> 00:10:59,380 Houston, Atlantis. 150 00:10:59,380 --> 00:11:04,620 Hubble has arrived on board Atlantis with the arm. 151 00:11:06,540 --> 00:11:11,740 The life of Hubble is intertwined with the life of the space shuttle. 152 00:11:13,140 --> 00:11:16,820 Like a loving parent, the shuttle has looked after Hubble, 153 00:11:16,820 --> 00:11:19,180 ferrying equipment to it and enhancing its power to make 154 00:11:19,180 --> 00:11:24,340 new discoveries about the universe. 155 00:11:31,220 --> 00:11:35,500 This is the incredible space shuttle Discovery. 156 00:11:35,500 --> 00:11:39,740 Space shuttle Discovery is, I think, a really historic bird because it 157 00:11:39,740 --> 00:11:42,900 launched the Hubble Space Telescope. 158 00:11:42,900 --> 00:11:46,460 The Hubble Space Telescope was actually designed to fill 159 00:11:46,460 --> 00:11:50,740 the volume of the payload bay of the shuttle. 160 00:11:50,740 --> 00:11:55,380 They did an excellent job in maybe one of the closest tolerances. 161 00:11:55,380 --> 00:11:58,340 T-minus five minutes and counting... 162 00:11:58,340 --> 00:12:00,980 Close and lock your visors and initiate your O2 flow 163 00:12:00,980 --> 00:12:03,460 and y'all have a good trip. 164 00:12:03,460 --> 00:12:05,260 April 24th, 1990. 165 00:12:05,260 --> 00:12:07,180 Space shuttle Discovery was sitting on the pad 166 00:12:07,180 --> 00:12:11,580 at the Kennedy Space Center. 167 00:12:11,580 --> 00:12:14,100 The countdown clicks down to zero... 168 00:12:14,100 --> 00:12:16,340 And lift-off of the space shuttle Discovery with 169 00:12:16,340 --> 00:12:18,460 the Hubble Space Telescope. 170 00:12:18,460 --> 00:12:22,540 Our window on the universe. 171 00:12:22,540 --> 00:12:25,660 Discovery leapt off the pad to space and eight-and-a-half minutes later 172 00:12:25,660 --> 00:12:30,860 it was orbiting the Earth, travelling at 17,500 miles an hour. 173 00:12:32,940 --> 00:12:34,380 Discovery, Houston. 174 00:12:34,380 --> 00:12:37,140 You have a go to open the doors. 175 00:12:37,140 --> 00:12:39,900 The crew in the cabin of Discovery opened the payload 176 00:12:39,900 --> 00:12:42,300 bay doors, revealing the Hubble Space Telescope 177 00:12:42,300 --> 00:12:44,820 tucked inside. 178 00:12:44,820 --> 00:12:47,660 And then the crew grabbed the Hubble and gently lifted it out 179 00:12:47,660 --> 00:12:49,580 with the robotic arm. 180 00:12:49,580 --> 00:12:52,860 Extended it, deployed the solar arrays and sent it off 181 00:12:52,860 --> 00:12:57,540 to do its mission of discovery. 182 00:12:57,540 --> 00:13:02,740 Discovery, you're go for umbilical disconnect. 183 00:13:03,660 --> 00:13:06,060 Hubble was one of the most anticipated scientific 184 00:13:06,060 --> 00:13:10,020 projects of all time. 185 00:13:10,020 --> 00:13:12,380 Once in orbit, astronomers all around the world prepared 186 00:13:12,380 --> 00:13:16,660 for the amazing images to come. 187 00:13:16,660 --> 00:13:21,340 But they were in for a nasty surprise. 188 00:13:21,340 --> 00:13:26,500 More major problems for Nasa tonight and this time it's not a quick fix. 189 00:13:27,420 --> 00:13:29,580 The Hubble Space Telescope, which cost $1.5 billion - 190 00:13:29,580 --> 00:13:31,940 the telescope which was supposed to give scientists 15 years 191 00:13:31,940 --> 00:13:34,220 of dramatic new pictures of space... 192 00:13:34,220 --> 00:13:35,940 ..it's broken. 193 00:13:35,940 --> 00:13:38,820 Engineers have discovered that the giant telescope 194 00:13:38,820 --> 00:13:41,180 has a warped mirror, which means the images sent back 195 00:13:41,180 --> 00:13:44,580 to Nasa are distorted. 196 00:13:44,580 --> 00:13:48,180 After the billions of dollars spent, the first pictures that Hubble 197 00:13:48,180 --> 00:13:51,540 beamed down were blurred. 198 00:13:51,540 --> 00:13:53,740 Astronomers were devastated. 199 00:13:53,740 --> 00:13:56,100 An investigation revealed that the outer edge of the main 200 00:13:56,100 --> 00:14:01,300 mirror had been made too flat. 201 00:14:02,540 --> 00:14:04,780 The solution would involve the most spectacular 202 00:14:04,780 --> 00:14:10,060 mission attempted by Nasa since the Apollo moon landings. 203 00:14:13,100 --> 00:14:16,540 Story Musgrave and Kathryn Thornton were members of the seven-person 204 00:14:16,540 --> 00:14:19,820 crew assigned to go and fix Hubble. 205 00:14:19,820 --> 00:14:23,420 There weren't very many of us in the office at that time we had 206 00:14:23,420 --> 00:14:26,500 done spacewalks and so that's how I got kind of a quick turnaround 207 00:14:26,500 --> 00:14:29,100 from one flight to the next. 208 00:14:29,100 --> 00:14:32,260 I started with Hubble in 1975. 209 00:14:32,260 --> 00:14:36,020 The Astronaut Office gave me the role of being the astronaut that 210 00:14:36,020 --> 00:14:39,460 would look at the future of this machine. 211 00:14:39,460 --> 00:14:42,380 You know, in all the fares, the hundreds and hundreds of fares 212 00:14:42,380 --> 00:14:45,220 I came up with that I had to accommodate, I did not 213 00:14:45,220 --> 00:14:49,420 have a line item that says "Nasa put wrong mirror in telescope. 214 00:14:49,420 --> 00:14:54,620 Hubble's misshapen mirror was too big and cumbersome to be replaced. 215 00:14:55,100 --> 00:14:57,660 So, instead, the plan was for the astronauts to swap out 216 00:14:57,660 --> 00:15:02,700 Hubble's main camera with a brand-new one. 217 00:15:02,700 --> 00:15:05,740 The Wide Field Planetary Camera, the main instrument aboard 218 00:15:05,740 --> 00:15:09,620 the telescope, which is located in a compartment in this area, 219 00:15:09,620 --> 00:15:13,180 will be pulled out by two astronauts and replaced with a new camera 220 00:15:13,180 --> 00:15:17,620 with corrective optical lenses aboard. 221 00:15:17,620 --> 00:15:22,780 A second device called Costar would also be fitted. 222 00:15:23,020 --> 00:15:26,860 Costar is a series of corrective lenses that will make the other 223 00:15:26,860 --> 00:15:30,540 instruments on board the telescope be able to see clearly for the first 224 00:15:30,540 --> 00:15:34,980 time in the Hubble's three-and-a-half-year history. 225 00:15:34,980 --> 00:15:37,660 The stakes were high. 226 00:15:37,660 --> 00:15:40,020 The astronauts knew that this mission would 227 00:15:40,020 --> 00:15:42,020 determine Hubble's fate. 228 00:15:42,020 --> 00:15:44,900 I never worried about getting hurt, I never worried about falling off 229 00:15:44,900 --> 00:15:47,340 and getting lost in space. 230 00:15:47,340 --> 00:15:50,580 I just didn't want to mess up. 231 00:15:50,580 --> 00:15:53,980 11, 10, 9... 232 00:15:53,980 --> 00:15:56,460 We have a go for main engines start. 233 00:15:56,460 --> 00:16:01,660 Five, four, three, two, one... 234 00:16:02,140 --> 00:16:04,060 And we have lift-off. 235 00:16:04,060 --> 00:16:06,460 Lift-off of the space shuttle Endeavour on an ambitious mission 236 00:16:06,460 --> 00:16:11,300 to service the Hubble Space Telescope. 237 00:16:16,660 --> 00:16:19,100 While most people in the United States were still sleeping, 238 00:16:19,100 --> 00:16:22,260 the space shuttle Endeavour roared off on its mission to fix 239 00:16:22,260 --> 00:16:27,540 the Hubble telescope. 240 00:16:33,060 --> 00:16:37,300 Endeavour has a firm handshake with Mr Hubble's telescope. 241 00:16:37,300 --> 00:16:41,980 APPLAUSE. 242 00:16:42,060 --> 00:16:46,100 The world held its breath as the astronauts carried out five 243 00:16:46,100 --> 00:16:49,300 back-to-back spacewalks in an attempt to bring Hubble 244 00:16:49,300 --> 00:16:53,580 back from the brink. 245 00:16:53,580 --> 00:16:56,820 The first spacewalk on Hubble? 246 00:16:56,820 --> 00:17:00,340 Did the dance. 247 00:17:00,340 --> 00:17:03,820 When the music starts, whatcha gonna do? 248 00:17:03,820 --> 00:17:08,020 Floating more than 540 kilometres above Earth's surface, 249 00:17:08,020 --> 00:17:10,500 Story's job was to fit Hubble's mammoth, 280 kilo 250 00:17:10,500 --> 00:17:13,460 replacement camera. 251 00:17:13,460 --> 00:17:16,140 There would be no second chance. 252 00:17:16,140 --> 00:17:18,860 Well, you've got a power tool and you unbolt the thing. 253 00:17:18,860 --> 00:17:20,580 You undo the connection - zip, zip. 254 00:17:20,580 --> 00:17:21,820 Stick it in a box. 255 00:17:21,820 --> 00:17:23,900 Hang it over there, get the new one out. 256 00:17:23,900 --> 00:17:29,140 Slide the new one in. 257 00:17:29,860 --> 00:17:32,660 Zip, zip. 258 00:17:32,660 --> 00:17:35,620 Story and Geoff took out the old Wide Field Planetary Camera 259 00:17:35,620 --> 00:17:39,260 1, pulled a new one out of its container 260 00:17:39,260 --> 00:17:43,020 and slid it in there. 261 00:17:43,020 --> 00:17:46,540 It's fingertips, baby. 262 00:17:46,540 --> 00:17:51,460 Fingertips. 263 00:17:51,460 --> 00:17:52,900 That's what's so awesome about Hubble. 264 00:17:52,900 --> 00:17:57,540 It's almost like plug-and-play. 265 00:17:57,540 --> 00:17:59,420 We installed Costar. 266 00:17:59,420 --> 00:18:03,460 We installed a co-processor on the computer to give it more memory. 267 00:18:03,460 --> 00:18:08,580 Added a new magnetometer and other "cats and dogs", as we called it. 268 00:18:11,060 --> 00:18:13,420 It is easy. 269 00:18:13,420 --> 00:18:16,660 You've got to make it easy. 270 00:18:16,660 --> 00:18:17,660 You ready? 271 00:18:17,660 --> 00:18:18,900 Oh, I'm ready. 272 00:18:18,900 --> 00:18:23,380 They say you've got to go for release. 273 00:18:23,380 --> 00:18:27,740 It was my job to throw away the solar array that didn't retract. 274 00:18:27,740 --> 00:18:30,900 And so I had the best seat in the house for that. 275 00:18:30,900 --> 00:18:34,700 It started flapping like this big, giant bird. 276 00:18:34,700 --> 00:18:39,700 It was beautiful. 277 00:18:43,020 --> 00:18:44,980 Can you hear us? 278 00:18:44,980 --> 00:18:47,900 The Vice President and I wanted to call you and congratulate 279 00:18:47,900 --> 00:18:51,780 you on one of the most spectacular space missions in our history. 280 00:18:51,780 --> 00:18:54,420 You made it look easy. 281 00:18:54,420 --> 00:18:58,420 And touchdown... 282 00:18:58,420 --> 00:19:00,740 All round the world, astronomers anxiously 283 00:19:00,740 --> 00:19:06,020 awaited the first pictures from Hubble's new camera. 284 00:19:06,620 --> 00:19:08,460 There was no plan B. 285 00:19:08,460 --> 00:19:11,580 If the fix hadn't worked, then Hubble would be one of the most 286 00:19:11,580 --> 00:19:16,140 expensive white elephants in scientific history. 287 00:19:16,140 --> 00:19:18,980 It's called "first light" in that world, astronomy. 288 00:19:18,980 --> 00:19:21,700 It's first light. 289 00:19:21,700 --> 00:19:24,260 It's when a telescope, it's the first thing... 290 00:19:24,260 --> 00:19:28,660 ..how are we doing? 291 00:19:28,940 --> 00:19:31,780 CHEERING. 292 00:19:31,780 --> 00:19:32,900 Right there! 293 00:19:32,900 --> 00:19:35,180 Oh! 294 00:19:35,180 --> 00:19:36,660 Did it! 295 00:19:36,660 --> 00:19:39,660 When the image hit the monitor... 296 00:19:39,660 --> 00:19:42,820 ..everyone screamed! 297 00:19:42,820 --> 00:19:44,140 Just... 298 00:19:44,140 --> 00:19:47,060 "God, it's fixed!" 299 00:19:47,060 --> 00:19:49,620 That is better than any you've ever seen. 300 00:19:49,620 --> 00:19:51,900 Hubble could finally see clearly with the crystal clarity 301 00:19:51,900 --> 00:19:54,980 that had been promised. 302 00:19:54,980 --> 00:19:58,820 It's a little premature but I'll shake your hand! 303 00:20:03,300 --> 00:20:08,180 From its inception in the mid-1970s to its troubled birth - 304 00:20:08,180 --> 00:20:12,020 even becoming the point of ridicule - alone and now fully functional, 305 00:20:12,020 --> 00:20:17,260 Hubble had something to prove. 306 00:20:17,860 --> 00:20:23,020 Something it was about to do in spectacular fashion. 307 00:20:29,100 --> 00:20:32,380 One year after Hubble's vision was fixed, astronomer 308 00:20:32,380 --> 00:20:37,460 Paul Scowen and his colleague, Geoff Hester, finalised plans to use 309 00:20:37,540 --> 00:20:40,740 Hubble to explore one of the most important processes at work 310 00:20:40,740 --> 00:20:43,500 in the universe. 311 00:20:43,500 --> 00:20:48,540 How stars form. 312 00:20:48,860 --> 00:20:51,660 One of the most fundamental things that astronomy is still striving 313 00:20:51,660 --> 00:20:56,540 to understand and explain is how stars are manufactured, 314 00:20:56,540 --> 00:20:59,220 how they are made. 315 00:20:59,220 --> 00:21:02,620 Our own sun, which is the closest example of a star that we have, 316 00:21:02,620 --> 00:21:03,900 is a medium-sized star. 317 00:21:03,900 --> 00:21:07,300 But when we look around the Milky Way we see 318 00:21:07,300 --> 00:21:09,900 this range of very few, very massive stars and a lot 319 00:21:09,900 --> 00:21:11,780 of very smaller ones. 320 00:21:11,780 --> 00:21:14,860 What we are trying to understand is how the conditions for making 321 00:21:14,860 --> 00:21:20,060 stars affect how big those stars can get. 322 00:21:26,420 --> 00:21:31,220 In an attempt to solve this mystery, in April 1995, Hubble 323 00:21:31,220 --> 00:21:34,300 turned its powerful gaze for the first time to a giant 324 00:21:34,300 --> 00:21:39,580 cloud of gas and dust called the Eagle Nebula. 325 00:21:49,380 --> 00:21:52,540 Paul hoped that Hubble's unrivalled high resolution would reveal 326 00:21:52,540 --> 00:21:57,660 processes at work within the stellar nursery for the first time. 327 00:22:00,740 --> 00:22:04,020 When we get the data in the first place they are literally the images 328 00:22:04,020 --> 00:22:06,580 that were read out of the camera up in space. 329 00:22:06,580 --> 00:22:08,900 And nothing has been done to them. 330 00:22:08,900 --> 00:22:12,740 So one of the first things we have to do is we have to get rid 331 00:22:12,740 --> 00:22:15,900 of all the scratches that you see in the raw images that come 332 00:22:15,900 --> 00:22:17,780 from energetic cosmic rays boring their way 333 00:22:17,780 --> 00:22:22,700 through the camera itself. 334 00:22:22,700 --> 00:22:25,620 The camera that we took this data with is actually four cameras 335 00:22:25,620 --> 00:22:30,860 and so I had to actually stick all four frames together. 336 00:22:32,420 --> 00:22:34,500 Hubble did not look at this nebula in colour, 337 00:22:34,500 --> 00:22:37,180 as you and I would understand it. 338 00:22:37,180 --> 00:22:39,500 It took separate black-and-white pictures that we had 339 00:22:39,500 --> 00:22:43,500 to subsequently apply colour to. 340 00:22:43,500 --> 00:22:45,780 Red, green and blue - literally what is used 341 00:22:45,780 --> 00:22:49,500 in computer colour displays. 342 00:22:49,500 --> 00:22:53,060 And we've just used that as a tool to portray the structure 343 00:22:53,060 --> 00:22:55,780 in the nebula in a way that the human eye 344 00:22:55,780 --> 00:23:00,220 can easily pick out. 345 00:23:00,220 --> 00:23:02,220 Hubble showed the heart of the Eagle Nebula 346 00:23:02,220 --> 00:23:06,140 in extraordinary detail. 347 00:23:06,140 --> 00:23:09,420 It was at that point that I then had the ability to mentally take 348 00:23:09,420 --> 00:23:12,700 a step back and say, "Oh, my gosh!" 349 00:23:12,700 --> 00:23:14,860 "Look at what we're looking at." 350 00:23:14,860 --> 00:23:17,900 We were just gushing about it and people were coming into the lab 351 00:23:17,900 --> 00:23:20,780 from elsewhere in the department. 352 00:23:20,780 --> 00:23:23,180 "Oh, my gosh, that's amazing, look at this!" 353 00:23:23,180 --> 00:23:26,420 And then we were going up and down the corridors in the building 354 00:23:26,420 --> 00:23:30,540 showing people and everybody was just so very excited. 355 00:23:30,540 --> 00:23:35,780 It quickly got the buzz phrase "Pillars of Creation". 356 00:23:55,620 --> 00:24:00,140 What Hubble had seen are vast clouds of mostly hydrogen gas. 357 00:24:00,140 --> 00:24:04,020 The raw material for making stars. 358 00:24:04,020 --> 00:24:09,100 The tallest of the pillars is at least 30 trillion kilometres high. 359 00:24:09,220 --> 00:24:14,340 The equivalent of 1000 times the diameter of our 360 00:24:14,900 --> 00:24:19,300 entire solar system. 361 00:24:27,620 --> 00:24:30,020 The pillars have been sculpted by powerful radiation 362 00:24:30,020 --> 00:24:34,980 and stellar winds raining down from newly-born, massive stars. 363 00:24:38,020 --> 00:24:43,220 Viewed in infrared, the gas that makes up the pillars 364 00:24:43,420 --> 00:24:46,020 becomes transparent, revealing clusters of 365 00:24:46,020 --> 00:24:50,620 embryonic stars within. 366 00:24:55,020 --> 00:24:58,420 Within the nest of the Eagle Nebula, Hubble had shown the birth of stars 367 00:24:58,420 --> 00:25:01,500 in unprecedented detail. 368 00:25:01,500 --> 00:25:06,660 Giving astronomers new insights into this incredible process. 369 00:25:22,820 --> 00:25:25,660 Part of the reason that Hubble has become such a famous telescope 370 00:25:25,660 --> 00:25:30,860 is that it's showing people phenomena that kind of speak to them 371 00:25:31,540 --> 00:25:36,780 almost on a spiritual level. 372 00:25:38,500 --> 00:25:43,740 The last people to see the origins of our universe. 373 00:25:53,300 --> 00:25:54,940 Hubble's famous for a couple of reasons. 374 00:25:54,940 --> 00:25:57,740 One is just that it has this ability to show us things 375 00:25:57,740 --> 00:26:01,940 we haven't seen before. 376 00:26:11,140 --> 00:26:13,460 The images are beautiful. 377 00:26:13,460 --> 00:26:15,620 You know, they are aesthetically pleasing as well as 378 00:26:15,620 --> 00:26:17,900 scientifically fascinating. 379 00:26:17,900 --> 00:26:22,740 And so they inspire curiosity, they spark a bit of wonder. 380 00:26:37,620 --> 00:26:42,260 The other is, there is a human connection to the observatory that 381 00:26:42,260 --> 00:26:47,380 a lot of telescopes, you just don't have it. 382 00:26:47,780 --> 00:26:52,620 There's a story there that just resonates with people. 383 00:26:52,620 --> 00:26:54,780 It's the observatory who had problems, that got repaired 384 00:26:54,780 --> 00:26:58,700 and suddenly is doing great things. 385 00:26:58,700 --> 00:27:00,340 So it's the underdog. 386 00:27:00,340 --> 00:27:04,220 It's the comeback story. 387 00:27:17,020 --> 00:27:19,940 These beautiful, colourful nebulae that Hubble was famous 388 00:27:19,940 --> 00:27:24,700 for are basically signposts to us that stars are continuing to form 389 00:27:24,700 --> 00:27:29,980 in the Milky Way galaxy. 390 00:27:30,820 --> 00:27:34,460 We are fascinated by these but we also think they're beautiful, 391 00:27:34,460 --> 00:27:39,060 just like everyone does when they see these images. 392 00:27:53,900 --> 00:27:59,020 But in reality, in the mid-1990s, this was only the beginning. 393 00:28:00,380 --> 00:28:02,660 Hubble was about to go hunting for the most destructive 394 00:28:02,660 --> 00:28:07,500 force in the universe. 395 00:28:09,180 --> 00:28:12,860 All countdown events are on schedule and the launch team is on station 396 00:28:12,860 --> 00:28:15,500 here in firing room three. 397 00:28:15,500 --> 00:28:19,020 On the 11th of February 1997, space shuttle Discovery blasted off 398 00:28:19,020 --> 00:28:24,180 again from Cape Canaveral. 399 00:28:24,420 --> 00:28:28,420 Once again, astronauts were risking their lives. 400 00:28:28,420 --> 00:28:33,300 This time to upgrade Hubble and give it new powers. 401 00:28:33,300 --> 00:28:36,580 Space shuttle Discovery is on its way on a mission to keep the Hubble 402 00:28:36,580 --> 00:28:38,940 telescope state-of-the-art. 403 00:28:38,940 --> 00:28:40,580 In two days, Discovery will rendezvous with 404 00:28:40,580 --> 00:28:42,540 the Hubble telescope. 405 00:28:42,540 --> 00:28:45,540 It's the first time that Hubble has been visited since the 1993 mission 406 00:28:45,540 --> 00:28:50,820 to correct its blurred vision. 407 00:28:54,500 --> 00:28:58,500 A key part of the new mission would be to fit a state-of-the-art 408 00:28:58,500 --> 00:29:02,620 instrument called a spectrograph. 409 00:29:02,620 --> 00:29:07,100 Like a prism, the instrument splits light into its component colours 410 00:29:07,100 --> 00:29:09,940 and would enable Hubble to probe the secrets of galaxies - 411 00:29:09,940 --> 00:29:15,180 the building blocks of the universe. 412 00:29:16,660 --> 00:29:21,860 Everything rested on the mission being a success. 413 00:29:23,540 --> 00:29:25,980 The space telescope imaging spectrograph was about 414 00:29:25,980 --> 00:29:28,340 the size of a refrigerator. 415 00:29:28,340 --> 00:29:33,460 So it's this giant box and was worth on the order of 100 or $200 million. 416 00:29:34,060 --> 00:29:38,020 The exact number doesn't matter. 417 00:29:38,020 --> 00:29:39,740 It just was big, heavy and expensive. 418 00:29:39,740 --> 00:29:43,660 Stop. 419 00:29:43,660 --> 00:29:46,540 Taking the old box out went pretty straightforward. 420 00:29:46,540 --> 00:29:49,180 But then I went over and picked up the space telescope 421 00:29:49,180 --> 00:29:53,220 imaging spectrograph, put it in. 422 00:29:53,220 --> 00:29:55,020 And that's when nervousness went up a bit. 423 00:29:55,020 --> 00:29:56,900 Because now I've got the real box, there's 424 00:29:56,900 --> 00:29:58,340 lots of people depending on me. 425 00:29:58,340 --> 00:30:00,100 There's lots of people watching me. 426 00:30:00,100 --> 00:30:02,420 And so, it was time to be really focused. 427 00:30:04,580 --> 00:30:06,980 Could you bring it forward another foot, please? 428 00:30:10,660 --> 00:30:13,540 We actually were able to get it into position with no issues. 429 00:30:13,540 --> 00:30:16,180 When we tried to tighten it down, the first time it 430 00:30:16,180 --> 00:30:18,380 did not tighten correctly. 431 00:30:22,460 --> 00:30:24,660 At that moment, I thought, no, please let's not 432 00:30:24,660 --> 00:30:27,940 have a big issue here. 433 00:30:27,940 --> 00:30:30,580 Maybe just be a little bit off and maybe we can fix this. 434 00:30:31,980 --> 00:30:34,420 Actually, give me another foot. 435 00:30:35,780 --> 00:30:38,100 And sure enough, that's what happened. 436 00:30:38,100 --> 00:30:40,340 We went to our back-up procedures, loosened the bolts, 437 00:30:40,340 --> 00:30:42,420 I moved it around a bit, tightened the bolts 438 00:30:42,420 --> 00:30:44,180 up and it was secure. 439 00:30:44,180 --> 00:30:47,820 Houston, the test is complete and were successful. 440 00:30:48,860 --> 00:30:50,940 Even before the space walk was over, we knew 441 00:30:50,940 --> 00:30:53,660 that it was working pretty well. 442 00:30:53,660 --> 00:30:56,140 I know a lot of scientists around the world are happy about that. 443 00:30:56,740 --> 00:30:59,220 Mission accomplished. 444 00:30:59,220 --> 00:31:00,820 Astronauts released the Hubble Space Telescope back 445 00:31:00,820 --> 00:31:02,180 into orbit early this morning. 446 00:31:02,180 --> 00:31:06,300 Nasa doesn't expect another mission like this until 1999. 447 00:31:21,780 --> 00:31:24,100 With the new spectrograph, Hubble could probe the very heart 448 00:31:24,100 --> 00:31:26,700 of galaxies, to search for one of the strangest and most 449 00:31:26,700 --> 00:31:28,420 terrifying objects ever discovered in the cosmos. 450 00:31:28,420 --> 00:31:33,580 Black holes. 451 00:32:13,260 --> 00:32:16,180 Priya Natarajan is a scientist who wanted to use Hubble to shed 452 00:32:16,180 --> 00:32:20,220 light on the largest black holes in the universe. 453 00:32:21,700 --> 00:32:25,540 To confirm their existence, and discover how common they might be. 454 00:32:31,020 --> 00:32:34,060 In 1997, when the second servicing mission was on, I was a graduate 455 00:32:34,060 --> 00:32:35,740 student at Cambridge. 456 00:32:35,740 --> 00:32:38,540 The prospect of settling the biggest open question of the time 457 00:32:38,540 --> 00:32:40,980 within a matter of months after launch of this instrument 458 00:32:40,980 --> 00:32:45,860 was really exciting. 459 00:32:48,900 --> 00:32:52,940 A black hole is an area of such immense gravity that even light 460 00:32:52,940 --> 00:32:55,860 cannot escape its pull. 461 00:32:57,220 --> 00:33:01,340 In 1992, Hubble had seen evidence of a very massive black hole lurking 462 00:33:01,340 --> 00:33:06,340 within the centre of a galaxy 45 million light years away. 463 00:33:06,420 --> 00:33:08,980 Now, with its new instrument, it had the means to gather 464 00:33:08,980 --> 00:33:13,700 definitive proof of its existence. 465 00:33:13,700 --> 00:33:17,140 What we are looking at here is one of the earliest iconic images that 466 00:33:17,140 --> 00:33:18,740 Hubble provided in 1992, before the installation 467 00:33:18,740 --> 00:33:24,020 of the spectrograph. 468 00:33:29,740 --> 00:33:32,380 And the supermassive black hole lurks right here, in the centre. 469 00:33:32,380 --> 00:33:34,460 This image shows gas swirling around what astronomers believe 470 00:33:34,460 --> 00:33:38,820 is a giant black hole, feeding on its surroundings. 471 00:33:40,100 --> 00:33:43,860 The way in which we image and infer the presence of a black hole 472 00:33:43,860 --> 00:33:46,420 is by looking at the impact that the black hole exerts 473 00:33:46,420 --> 00:33:50,500 on its immediate environment. 474 00:33:50,500 --> 00:33:54,740 So, in this instance, in this image, what we really see 475 00:33:54,740 --> 00:33:57,780 is the effect of the gravity, the intense gravity 476 00:33:57,780 --> 00:34:00,620 of the supermassive black hole that is sitting here that is pulling 477 00:34:00,620 --> 00:34:04,780 all this gas towards itself. 478 00:34:04,780 --> 00:34:07,740 And as the gas is being pulled in, it's being sped up, 479 00:34:07,740 --> 00:34:10,220 it's getting heated up, and the gas starts to glow. 480 00:34:10,220 --> 00:34:13,420 So what we're really seeing is the dying gasps of the gas before 481 00:34:13,420 --> 00:34:18,460 it goes into oblivion, and gets sucked into black hole. 482 00:34:19,140 --> 00:34:21,340 Armed with a new instrument, Hubble could now attempt 483 00:34:21,340 --> 00:34:26,500 something incredible, and weigh a black hole. 484 00:34:27,460 --> 00:34:29,660 Amazing as this image was, it's a static image. 485 00:34:29,660 --> 00:34:31,740 So it doesn't tell you anything about the speeds 486 00:34:31,740 --> 00:34:35,340 of gas in this region. 487 00:34:35,340 --> 00:34:37,660 And those would be the ones that would totally ratify 488 00:34:37,660 --> 00:34:41,020 the supermassive black hole picture. 489 00:34:41,020 --> 00:34:43,660 Because the speeds of the gas, if we could measure them, 490 00:34:43,660 --> 00:34:48,940 would give us a direct estimate of the mass of the black hole. 491 00:34:50,580 --> 00:34:54,460 With its spectrograph, Hubble had become a black hole hunter. 492 00:34:55,460 --> 00:34:59,380 On the 14th of April 1997, took aim at a galaxy called M84. 493 00:35:03,180 --> 00:35:06,340 Hubble scanned the very heart of the galaxy. 494 00:35:06,340 --> 00:35:08,940 Mapping the motion of the swirling gas and weighing the invisible 495 00:35:08,940 --> 00:35:12,940 black hole at its centre. 496 00:35:12,940 --> 00:35:16,180 The measurements revealed a black hole at least 300 million times 497 00:35:16,180 --> 00:35:18,380 the mass of our sun. 498 00:35:18,380 --> 00:35:23,620 A cosmic monster. 499 00:35:27,580 --> 00:35:30,340 Hubble data showed that the stars and the gas were moving out, 500 00:35:30,340 --> 00:35:32,100 I don't know, 880,000 miles an hour. 501 00:35:32,100 --> 00:35:34,020 That's like 400 kilometres a second or something. 502 00:35:34,020 --> 00:35:39,260 It is extremely fast. 503 00:35:40,140 --> 00:35:43,140 Hubble turned its gaze to other galaxies to see if they might also 504 00:35:43,140 --> 00:35:46,860 harbour monster black holes. 505 00:35:46,860 --> 00:35:51,260 The expectation was that black holes were a rare phenomenon. 506 00:35:51,260 --> 00:35:54,660 So it was totally surprising that at least in the nearby universe 507 00:35:54,660 --> 00:35:57,420 Hubble found that pretty much everywhere it looked 508 00:35:57,420 --> 00:36:00,740 there was a supermassive black hole in the heart of a galaxy. 509 00:36:07,580 --> 00:36:12,380 Many astronomers had thought supermassive black holes were rare. 510 00:36:12,380 --> 00:36:15,060 But Hubble found them everywhere. 511 00:36:20,260 --> 00:36:23,820 Some spewing out fast jets of material and energy, 512 00:36:23,820 --> 00:36:29,100 extending well beyond the confines of their galaxy. 513 00:36:49,140 --> 00:36:52,860 What Hubble set afoot was this transformation in understanding, 514 00:36:52,860 --> 00:36:54,220 completely radically changed our conception 515 00:36:54,220 --> 00:36:56,540 of black holes. 516 00:36:56,540 --> 00:37:01,580 So they've come from the sidekicks to playing the starring role. 517 00:37:03,420 --> 00:37:08,300 And I think the quest is on to see if there's really... 518 00:37:08,300 --> 00:37:11,580 Are there a class of galaxies that don't harbour a black hole? 519 00:37:14,700 --> 00:37:17,660 Hubble had helped transform astronomers' understanding 520 00:37:17,660 --> 00:37:19,740 of the make-up of galaxies, and revealed one of 521 00:37:19,740 --> 00:37:23,500 the universe's great secrets. 522 00:37:30,540 --> 00:37:32,460 As Hubble entered the new millennium, it prepared 523 00:37:32,460 --> 00:37:34,020 for its greatest quest. 524 00:37:34,020 --> 00:37:36,780 To see further across the universe than ever before, 525 00:37:36,780 --> 00:37:41,980 to look back in time and explore cosmic evolution. 526 00:37:42,580 --> 00:37:46,180 Once again, the shuttle and its crew were called to action. 527 00:37:47,660 --> 00:37:51,340 It was a Monday morning. 528 00:37:51,340 --> 00:37:55,020 Steve Smith knocked on my door at like 7am, which is time to start 529 00:37:55,020 --> 00:37:57,380 getting to go to work. 530 00:37:57,380 --> 00:37:58,660 And he shows my door. 531 00:37:58,660 --> 00:38:03,940 And I said, what's going on? 532 00:38:08,660 --> 00:38:09,980 He's holding a kid's book. 533 00:38:09,980 --> 00:38:11,860 You know, like, Hubble Space Telescope kids book. 534 00:38:11,860 --> 00:38:12,900 Good morning, Mr Massimino. 535 00:38:12,900 --> 00:38:15,060 I'm Steve Smith, I represent the United States government. 536 00:38:15,060 --> 00:38:18,180 I'd like to request on behalf of the people of the United States 537 00:38:18,180 --> 00:38:20,340 if you could go service the Hubble Space Telescope. 538 00:38:20,340 --> 00:38:22,460 In my estimation, Hubble was the ultimate, the epitome 539 00:38:22,460 --> 00:38:24,420 of what you could do as an astronaut. 540 00:38:24,420 --> 00:38:29,660 Not that the others aren't, but this is the big time. 541 00:38:31,780 --> 00:38:34,580 We had a good man-hug between us and it was a really 542 00:38:34,580 --> 00:38:35,660 celebratory moment. 543 00:38:35,660 --> 00:38:38,460 The plan was to enhance Hubble's vision with a new camera, called 544 00:38:38,460 --> 00:38:43,740 the Advanced Camera for Surveys. 545 00:38:52,700 --> 00:38:55,340 Built at a cost of over $100 million in today's money, 546 00:38:55,340 --> 00:38:57,740 it would be ten times more powerful than its predecessor. 547 00:38:57,740 --> 00:39:00,620 The Advanced Camera for Surveys was going to be the best camera 548 00:39:00,620 --> 00:39:02,660 ever put into Hubble. 549 00:39:02,660 --> 00:39:05,780 And it had a wide-field sensor that would enable us to see deeper 550 00:39:05,780 --> 00:39:08,420 into the universe than ever before. 551 00:39:09,580 --> 00:39:12,460 Mike, you can tell, the New York wave there. 552 00:39:13,820 --> 00:39:15,820 Fitting the more than $100 million camera involved 553 00:39:15,820 --> 00:39:18,940 a dangerous spacewalk. 554 00:39:18,940 --> 00:39:22,100 The astronaut chosen to do it had never even been in space before. 555 00:39:22,100 --> 00:39:24,780 I was a pure rookie. 556 00:39:24,780 --> 00:39:28,460 This was the first time they had ever sent a person out of the door 557 00:39:28,460 --> 00:39:30,580 to work on Hubble that had never flown before. 558 00:39:30,580 --> 00:39:32,580 I didn't know anything. 559 00:39:33,500 --> 00:39:35,780 Columbia OTC. 560 00:39:35,780 --> 00:39:38,020 Good luck on your mission, allowing us to better 561 00:39:38,020 --> 00:39:40,380 glimpse our future by enhancing Hubble's view of the past. 562 00:39:40,380 --> 00:39:42,860 Close all of your visors, initiate O2 flow. 563 00:39:42,860 --> 00:39:44,380 Main engine start. 564 00:39:48,540 --> 00:39:50,580 Lift off. 565 00:39:57,020 --> 00:40:00,420 Just shy of 21 years after she first flew, 566 00:40:00,420 --> 00:40:03,900 Space Shuttle Columbia hurtled to the heavens once again. 567 00:40:08,940 --> 00:40:12,100 It was down to the rookie astronaut to upgrade the world's 568 00:40:12,100 --> 00:40:15,420 most famous telescope. 569 00:40:18,860 --> 00:40:20,860 I'm heading off to the side, is that correct? 570 00:40:24,380 --> 00:40:27,020 The first thing we did was to open up the telescope 571 00:40:27,020 --> 00:40:29,380 and get the old camera out of there and stow it. 572 00:40:29,980 --> 00:40:31,900 Just go a little bit to your left. 573 00:40:34,380 --> 00:40:37,340 We unhooked the Advanced Camera for Surveys from the carrier, 574 00:40:37,340 --> 00:40:40,180 Jim got over with the robot arm and he was lifted out 575 00:40:40,180 --> 00:40:42,140 by Nancy Currie, who was our robot arm operator. 576 00:40:42,220 --> 00:40:45,420 I think it needs to come a little right, by about two inches. 577 00:40:48,100 --> 00:40:51,660 Turned around, and I helped him and Nancy guide it into the telescope. 578 00:40:51,660 --> 00:40:53,340 And then we drove its latches. 579 00:40:53,340 --> 00:40:54,580 They've checked the door seal. 580 00:40:54,580 --> 00:40:56,580 Very good. 581 00:41:00,100 --> 00:41:02,700 Hubble has a way of throwing us curveballs now and again. 582 00:41:02,700 --> 00:41:04,740 The Advanced Camera for Surveys went pretty smoothly. 583 00:41:04,740 --> 00:41:07,340 Hooked it up to power and data, and did a little 584 00:41:07,340 --> 00:41:11,020 checkout, and it worked. 585 00:41:11,020 --> 00:41:13,900 Everything had gone to plan. 586 00:41:13,900 --> 00:41:16,940 Me, personally, I couldn't think of a better first space flight. 587 00:41:16,940 --> 00:41:20,900 Not quite to the moon, but still pretty good, I thought. 588 00:41:20,900 --> 00:41:24,860 And I was very grateful for that opportunity, 589 00:41:24,860 --> 00:41:27,860 and felt it went pretty well, and I was hoping I would get 590 00:41:27,860 --> 00:41:30,380 a chance to go back someday. 591 00:41:30,380 --> 00:41:32,580 As Space Shuttle Columbia returned to Earth, Hubble prepared 592 00:41:32,580 --> 00:41:35,860 to use its new camera. 593 00:41:37,140 --> 00:41:40,900 It was going to push back the boundaries of what was possible. 594 00:41:40,940 --> 00:41:43,500 The camera would enable it to see further than ever before 595 00:41:43,500 --> 00:41:47,620 across the visible universe. 596 00:41:47,620 --> 00:41:52,660 What Hubble discovered next was truly extraordinary. 597 00:41:58,980 --> 00:42:04,220 This is one of the deepest optical images of the universe ever taken. 598 00:42:10,740 --> 00:42:14,260 It's the full-blown Hubble ultra-deep field. 599 00:42:14,260 --> 00:42:17,260 And what's important to think about in this image is you're 600 00:42:17,260 --> 00:42:22,300 looking at a lot of objects in what seems like two dimensions. 601 00:42:23,900 --> 00:42:25,380 But, really, you've got a three-dimensional 602 00:42:25,380 --> 00:42:29,700 view of the universe. 603 00:42:29,700 --> 00:42:32,700 The light from the most distant galaxies has taken billions of years 604 00:42:32,700 --> 00:42:37,180 to travel across the universe and reach Hubble. 605 00:42:39,380 --> 00:42:41,060 By taking this picture, Hubble was literally 606 00:42:41,060 --> 00:42:45,860 looking back in time, to see the very early universe. 607 00:42:52,220 --> 00:42:55,860 The first thing you're going to see, down here on the right-hand side, 608 00:42:55,860 --> 00:42:59,980 there is a galaxy very much like the Milky Way. 609 00:42:59,980 --> 00:43:01,980 That galaxy is about 5 billion light-years away. 610 00:43:01,980 --> 00:43:04,780 So, we are looking back in time by 5 billion years. 611 00:43:09,060 --> 00:43:12,460 But if we go further back in time, 9 billion years into the past, 612 00:43:12,460 --> 00:43:14,540 you see this little group of galaxies, in particular 613 00:43:14,540 --> 00:43:18,940 these two in the centre. 614 00:43:18,940 --> 00:43:21,860 They are odd shaped, because they haven't yet had time 615 00:43:21,860 --> 00:43:25,260 to build these beautiful structures that we see. 616 00:43:26,140 --> 00:43:28,540 These are colliding together, and that's how galaxies built up 617 00:43:28,540 --> 00:43:30,300 to become what we see today. 618 00:43:32,220 --> 00:43:35,460 Even further back in time, to 12.6 billion light years, 619 00:43:35,460 --> 00:43:40,260 and what we see is this little red galaxy beginning to emerge. 620 00:43:40,260 --> 00:43:43,220 It's red, because we're looking at a galaxy whose light was admitted 621 00:43:43,220 --> 00:43:48,060 when the universe was about 10% of its present age. 622 00:43:48,260 --> 00:43:48,420 And it doesn't look like an elliptical galaxy, and it 623 00:43:50,540 --> 00:43:53,940 doesn't look like a spiral galaxy. 624 00:43:53,940 --> 00:43:57,500 This is a piece of the universe that hasn't yet had time to come together 625 00:43:57,500 --> 00:43:59,620 with other pieces to create the spiral and elliptical 626 00:43:59,620 --> 00:44:02,060 galaxies we see today. 627 00:44:06,580 --> 00:44:09,380 Hubble had looked back in time towards the final frontier, 628 00:44:09,380 --> 00:44:13,060 the dawn of galaxies. 629 00:44:13,060 --> 00:44:18,100 It had captured almost 13 billion years of history in a single image. 630 00:44:23,100 --> 00:44:26,260 It was an astonishing achievement. 631 00:44:26,260 --> 00:44:29,300 But, for the astronauts who had put their lives at risk 632 00:44:29,300 --> 00:44:31,180 and made it possible, there was little room 633 00:44:31,180 --> 00:44:36,460 for celebration. 634 00:44:46,180 --> 00:44:48,340 I remember very distinctly, it was just before eight 635 00:44:48,340 --> 00:44:50,180 o'clock in the morning. 636 00:44:50,420 --> 00:44:53,740 I was sitting at home with my wife and we were watching the entry 637 00:44:53,740 --> 00:44:57,500 of Space Shuttle Columbia. 638 00:44:58,500 --> 00:45:00,980 We've got a little problem on the Space Shuttle Columbia. 639 00:45:00,980 --> 00:45:03,820 It has been out of communication now for the last 12 minutes. 640 00:45:03,820 --> 00:45:06,220 Let's take a look at a live picture of mission control in Houston. 641 00:45:11,180 --> 00:45:13,380 Mission control centre did not have contact with Columbia. 642 00:45:13,380 --> 00:45:16,620 And the clock kept ticking, and it was several minutes 643 00:45:16,620 --> 00:45:21,860 after they were supposed to have contact. 644 00:45:22,900 --> 00:45:25,180 And I turned to my wife, and said, I think 645 00:45:25,180 --> 00:45:29,220 we just lost Columbia. 646 00:45:31,460 --> 00:45:34,100 On the 1st of February 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia burned up 647 00:45:34,100 --> 00:45:36,500 during re-entry with the loss of the two women and 648 00:45:36,500 --> 00:45:38,780 five men on board. 649 00:45:38,780 --> 00:45:40,860 My fellow Americans, this day has brought terrible news 650 00:45:40,860 --> 00:45:45,620 and great sadness to our country. 651 00:45:45,700 --> 00:45:50,340 At nine o'clock this morning, mission control in Houston lost 652 00:45:50,340 --> 00:45:54,220 contact with their Space Shuttle Columbia. 653 00:45:55,420 --> 00:45:59,420 A short time later, debris was seen falling from the skies above Texas. 654 00:46:00,580 --> 00:46:03,140 The Columbia is lost. 655 00:46:03,140 --> 00:46:08,380 There are no survivors. 656 00:46:12,620 --> 00:46:14,500 Just a year earlier, Columbia had carried astronauts 657 00:46:14,500 --> 00:46:17,140 to Hubble to fit the new camera, its last flight before 658 00:46:17,140 --> 00:46:22,380 its fatal mission. 659 00:46:26,900 --> 00:46:29,260 We all know that it's an incredibly dangerous business. 660 00:46:29,260 --> 00:46:32,860 When it happens, though, it's just devastating. 661 00:46:32,860 --> 00:46:36,460 Absolutely devastating. 662 00:46:36,460 --> 00:46:40,340 And, you know, even though we all know what the risks are, 663 00:46:40,340 --> 00:46:43,380 and we know what good comes out of it, on days like that, 664 00:46:43,380 --> 00:46:45,860 it really takes time. 665 00:46:45,860 --> 00:46:48,860 You need to take time to pause and think about it. 666 00:46:48,860 --> 00:46:53,100 You know, explorers always feel that the programme should continue. 667 00:46:53,100 --> 00:46:58,180 That's been documented many times by previous astronauts. 668 00:47:01,260 --> 00:47:03,660 I, for example, before every flight wrote my family members, 669 00:47:03,660 --> 00:47:06,540 each one of them, a letter, in case I didn't come back. 670 00:47:06,540 --> 00:47:08,500 And I gave that to a close friend. 671 00:47:08,500 --> 00:47:11,180 And so the ones to my spouse, for example, would say, 672 00:47:11,180 --> 00:47:14,220 we know what the risks are, we know how great the gains are. 673 00:47:14,220 --> 00:47:16,660 If anyone asks you, I'm totally in favour of us 674 00:47:16,660 --> 00:47:17,940 continuing this venture. 675 00:47:17,940 --> 00:47:20,100 And, by the way, you should get married again. 676 00:47:20,100 --> 00:47:24,740 So... 677 00:47:32,780 --> 00:47:36,940 In January 2004, Nasa announced that it was cancelling 678 00:47:36,940 --> 00:47:39,900 the upcoming mission to Hubble. 679 00:47:39,900 --> 00:47:42,020 With safety concerns over the shuttle, it was deemed 680 00:47:42,020 --> 00:47:46,500 simply too dangerous. 681 00:47:49,580 --> 00:47:52,500 Hubble was being abandoned, with no prospect of future 682 00:47:52,500 --> 00:47:56,500 repairs and upgrades. 683 00:47:58,540 --> 00:48:02,260 I was pretty disappointed. 684 00:48:02,260 --> 00:48:04,580 They had already started getting ready for servicing mission four. 685 00:48:04,580 --> 00:48:09,860 The equipment was built. 686 00:48:10,100 --> 00:48:12,260 Those science instruments aren't cheap, and they don't really 687 00:48:12,260 --> 00:48:14,180 have much purpose other than going to Hubble. 688 00:48:14,180 --> 00:48:16,340 So were we really going to forget about this? 689 00:48:16,340 --> 00:48:21,500 The decision to abandon Hubble provoked a massive outcry. 690 00:48:23,100 --> 00:48:25,540 Before long, Nasa was receiving thousands of messages a week 691 00:48:25,540 --> 00:48:30,820 in protest as the campaign mounted to save Hubble. 692 00:48:32,860 --> 00:48:35,740 I remember going to a school in the midwest, where children had 693 00:48:35,740 --> 00:48:37,940 raised funds when they heard that the Hubble Space 694 00:48:37,940 --> 00:48:42,180 Telescope servicing mission had been cancelled. 695 00:48:42,180 --> 00:48:46,180 They wanted to do something to help Nasa. 696 00:48:46,220 --> 00:48:51,300 And of course, my heart was touched. 697 00:48:53,180 --> 00:48:55,860 Then, in October 2006, the news came that Nasa had 698 00:48:55,860 --> 00:48:59,460 reversed its decision. 699 00:48:59,460 --> 00:49:02,260 Hubble was going to get one last visit before the space shuttles 700 00:49:02,260 --> 00:49:05,460 were permanently retired. 701 00:49:07,580 --> 00:49:10,020 John Grunsfeld used to say the Hubble knows when someone's 702 00:49:10,020 --> 00:49:12,020 coming to fix it and service it. 703 00:49:12,020 --> 00:49:14,300 And something will happen. 704 00:49:14,300 --> 00:49:18,860 And sure enough, that's what happened. 705 00:49:20,180 --> 00:49:22,020 As we started training, the space telescope imaging 706 00:49:22,020 --> 00:49:23,580 spectrograph failed, followed by the Advanced 707 00:49:23,580 --> 00:49:26,620 Camera for Surveys. 708 00:49:26,620 --> 00:49:29,260 And suddenly we had a situation where it looked like all 709 00:49:29,260 --> 00:49:31,140 of the scientific instruments on Hubble were failing, 710 00:49:31,140 --> 00:49:36,420 and our job would be to bring them all back to life. 711 00:49:36,700 --> 00:49:38,860 And here are the astronauts now walking out of 712 00:49:38,860 --> 00:49:42,500 the astronaut quarters. 713 00:49:42,500 --> 00:49:44,740 The first and only time in the entire space 714 00:49:44,740 --> 00:49:48,220 shuttle programme history, there are going to be two 715 00:49:48,220 --> 00:49:50,860 shuttles ready to go within a few days of each other. 716 00:49:50,860 --> 00:49:53,860 Nasa has even put it another shuttle on standby in case they need 717 00:49:53,860 --> 00:49:55,900 to launch a rescue mission. 718 00:49:56,300 --> 00:49:58,980 We knew this was it. 719 00:49:58,980 --> 00:50:02,220 So let's enjoy it, let's make sure we do the best job we can. 720 00:50:48,540 --> 00:50:51,380 John Kennedy said we try these things not because they are easy, 721 00:50:51,380 --> 00:50:53,100 but because they are hard. 722 00:50:53,100 --> 00:50:54,780 Particularly in this mission, the final mission, 723 00:50:54,780 --> 00:50:58,300 we are going for broke. 724 00:50:58,300 --> 00:51:01,220 After seven years, Hubble needed a complete overhaul. 725 00:51:01,220 --> 00:51:03,740 But the success of the entire mission had come down 726 00:51:03,740 --> 00:51:09,020 to just one screw. 727 00:51:12,820 --> 00:51:14,700 The biggest concerns we had were the repairs 728 00:51:14,700 --> 00:51:16,340 of the space telescope, the spectrograph and 729 00:51:16,340 --> 00:51:17,580 the Advanced Camera for Surveys. 730 00:51:17,580 --> 00:51:19,500 The repair of the space telescope imaging spectrograph, 731 00:51:19,500 --> 00:51:23,780 over 100 new tools were invented for this one task. 732 00:51:23,780 --> 00:51:26,180 Including a power tool, because we had 111 small screws 733 00:51:26,180 --> 00:51:28,820 to remove, and this was the most complicated spacewalk we had 734 00:51:28,820 --> 00:51:33,220 ever thought of doing. 735 00:51:36,460 --> 00:51:39,300 Getting ready to go out there and do it on that day, 736 00:51:39,300 --> 00:51:41,500 I knew this was a big day for me. 737 00:51:41,500 --> 00:51:43,900 In the back of my mind, I was thinking, well, 738 00:51:43,900 --> 00:51:49,060 I wonder what's out there really waiting for me. 739 00:51:49,420 --> 00:51:52,340 Because it's always that one thing out there that can get you. 740 00:51:52,340 --> 00:51:55,140 And I was hoping nothing like that would surface when I went 741 00:51:55,140 --> 00:51:56,940 out the door that day. 742 00:51:57,660 --> 00:52:00,260 OK, here we go. 743 00:52:01,380 --> 00:52:03,740 Mike Good and Mike Massimino went out of the airlock, 744 00:52:03,740 --> 00:52:06,100 back to the telescope, opened the doors, prepared the work 745 00:52:06,100 --> 00:52:11,420 site where the spectrograph lives. 746 00:52:11,940 --> 00:52:13,980 And the first thing Mike had do was to remove a handrail. 747 00:52:15,060 --> 00:52:17,660 He's engaged the lock. 748 00:52:20,740 --> 00:52:22,700 I wanted this to be a perfect day. 749 00:52:22,700 --> 00:52:24,620 And everything was going well for a while. 750 00:52:24,620 --> 00:52:27,460 And then one of the simplest things we were going to do, 751 00:52:27,460 --> 00:52:29,060 one line in the check list. 752 00:52:29,060 --> 00:52:31,900 Remove handrail bolts, four. 753 00:52:31,900 --> 00:52:33,100 Four handrail bolts. 754 00:52:33,100 --> 00:52:37,380 One line in the check list. 755 00:52:40,460 --> 00:52:42,060 We copy your discussion, and that's great. 756 00:52:42,060 --> 00:52:44,300 We also have good video as well. 757 00:52:45,300 --> 00:52:46,740 Two in the top came out. 758 00:52:46,740 --> 00:52:48,380 One on the bottom left comes out. 759 00:52:48,380 --> 00:52:50,140 This was nothing. 760 00:52:50,140 --> 00:52:52,220 It was like tying your shoes in the morning. 761 00:52:52,220 --> 00:52:54,700 The one on the right, I'm waiting for a good 762 00:52:54,700 --> 00:52:56,860 green light on my tool, and spinning it, and 763 00:52:56,860 --> 00:52:57,940 nothing is happening. 764 00:52:57,940 --> 00:52:59,540 I thought, jeez, that's kind of funny. 765 00:52:59,540 --> 00:53:01,740 I tried it again, and nothing is going on. 766 00:53:01,740 --> 00:53:03,900 And then I look and see what I've done. 767 00:53:03,900 --> 00:53:06,380 I am looking at a gnarled screw head. 768 00:53:06,380 --> 00:53:08,300 I have destroyed that screw. 769 00:53:08,300 --> 00:53:13,460 There is no way we are going to be able to unscrew that. 770 00:53:13,540 --> 00:53:14,780 It's stuck. 771 00:53:14,780 --> 00:53:15,980 The bolts are big bolts. 772 00:53:15,980 --> 00:53:17,620 You know, how could you strip it? 773 00:53:17,620 --> 00:53:19,900 And in training, we had never stripped one. 774 00:53:19,900 --> 00:53:22,860 I don't think that one's coming out. 775 00:53:24,460 --> 00:53:26,500 Well, that's not good. 776 00:53:31,300 --> 00:53:34,580 For literally hours we had a team onboard and the team on the ground 777 00:53:34,580 --> 00:53:36,860 trying to come up with a solution. 778 00:53:36,860 --> 00:53:39,620 And finally, after a few hours, the ground called up. 779 00:53:40,020 --> 00:53:42,180 Mission Control wanted Mike to rip off the handrail 780 00:53:42,180 --> 00:53:44,900 using pure brute force. 781 00:53:44,900 --> 00:53:47,060 The fate of one of Hubble's most important instruments 782 00:53:47,060 --> 00:53:49,460 hung in the balance. 783 00:54:00,700 --> 00:54:04,900 I went back to the telescope, I taped it up as best we could, 784 00:54:04,900 --> 00:54:06,940 and gave it a few tugs. 785 00:54:11,660 --> 00:54:13,060 And pulled, and pulled, and pulled. 786 00:54:13,060 --> 00:54:15,700 And then bang. 787 00:54:17,740 --> 00:54:20,780 It came right off and I was very grateful for a second chance. 788 00:54:20,780 --> 00:54:23,020 We picked it back up where we were. 789 00:54:26,060 --> 00:54:27,100 Easy, Mike. 790 00:54:27,100 --> 00:54:29,500 Just real easy, OK? 791 00:54:38,700 --> 00:54:42,660 547 kilometres above Earth, travelling at more than 27,000 792 00:54:42,660 --> 00:54:45,260 kilometres per hour, all that was left for Mike to do 793 00:54:45,260 --> 00:54:50,540 was to take one last look at Hubble. 794 00:54:51,700 --> 00:54:53,900 I was in the airlock, and Scooter, my commander, 795 00:54:53,900 --> 00:54:55,340 comes over the comms loop. 796 00:54:55,340 --> 00:54:59,620 And he says, Mass, what are you doing? 797 00:54:59,620 --> 00:55:02,860 I said, I'm just getting the airlock ready for ingress. 798 00:55:02,860 --> 00:55:05,420 And then he said, is there anything you're doing now that 799 00:55:05,420 --> 00:55:09,340 can't wait until later? 800 00:55:09,340 --> 00:55:13,340 He goes, why don't you just go outside and enjoy the view? 801 00:55:17,420 --> 00:55:20,060 And then I remember going out to right above the airlock 802 00:55:20,060 --> 00:55:25,180 and putting a tether on a handrail and just kind of letting go, 803 00:55:25,260 --> 00:55:27,820 and I just sat there and enjoyed the view for however 804 00:55:27,820 --> 00:55:28,900 many minutes we had. 805 00:55:28,900 --> 00:55:31,500 And it was magnificent. 806 00:55:32,620 --> 00:55:34,940 There was something that this was the last lap here, 807 00:55:34,940 --> 00:55:38,020 you know, this was it. 808 00:55:39,820 --> 00:55:45,100 So, this was the last look at our planet and our universe, and Hubble. 809 00:55:49,780 --> 00:55:52,420 The only thing left for me to do on that spacewalk, 810 00:55:52,420 --> 00:55:57,500 and for my spacewalking career, was go inside. 811 00:56:04,180 --> 00:56:07,420 Knew it would be the last time I would see the Hubble Space 812 00:56:07,420 --> 00:56:09,700 Telescope, because the shuttle retirement was imminent. 813 00:56:09,700 --> 00:56:13,700 It's why we have Space Shuttle Discovery in the museum. 814 00:56:15,740 --> 00:56:20,660 I was wondering why I wasn't sad. 815 00:56:20,660 --> 00:56:24,020 And then I thought, we've just given Hubble new scientific instruments, 816 00:56:24,020 --> 00:56:25,700 we have repaired ones that were broken. 817 00:56:25,700 --> 00:56:27,500 We have put in new electronics. 818 00:56:28,180 --> 00:56:31,180 Making Hubble better than it's ever been before. 819 00:56:34,660 --> 00:56:37,300 I had the chance to actually give Hubble a final pat 820 00:56:37,300 --> 00:56:39,620 and a little salute, and wish the Hubble Space Telescope 821 00:56:39,620 --> 00:56:43,420 well on its voyages. 822 00:56:43,420 --> 00:56:46,260 Houston, Hubble has been released and now Hubble can 823 00:56:46,260 --> 00:56:48,260 continue on its own, exploring the cosmos 824 00:56:48,260 --> 00:56:50,900 and bringing them home to us, as we head for home. 825 00:56:50,900 --> 00:56:55,980 Thank you. 826 00:57:11,020 --> 00:57:13,380 I would never count this observatory out. 827 00:57:13,380 --> 00:57:16,460 I would never bet against it. 828 00:57:16,460 --> 00:57:18,860 Because it always has a way of making what seems 829 00:57:18,860 --> 00:57:21,980 impossible possible. 830 00:57:21,980 --> 00:57:25,020 Really great people on the ground, clever people find ways to do things 831 00:57:25,020 --> 00:57:28,500 with this observatory that we haven't imagined before. 832 00:57:33,900 --> 00:57:36,580 Marking Hubble's 30th anniversary, I am filled with both a sense 833 00:57:36,580 --> 00:57:38,900 of great appreciation for what has been learned through this 834 00:57:38,900 --> 00:57:39,980 magnificent platform. 835 00:57:39,980 --> 00:57:42,300 I'm grateful for all the people, for decades, who have 836 00:57:42,300 --> 00:57:47,580 enabled this to happen. 837 00:57:53,460 --> 00:57:58,740 And so, the legacy of Hubble is one that doesn't end with Hubble. 838 00:58:02,580 --> 00:58:05,220 Happy birthday, Hubble. 839 00:58:05,220 --> 00:58:06,260 Happy 30th. 840 00:58:06,260 --> 00:58:07,260 I miss you. 841 00:58:07,260 --> 00:58:08,860 I wish I could see you again. 842 00:58:08,860 --> 00:58:10,100 But good luck. 843 00:58:10,140 --> 00:58:12,940 Hi, sweetie. 844 00:58:13,980 --> 00:58:15,900 I love you. 845 00:58:15,980 --> 00:58:20,860 Thanks for showing us the beauty of the universe.