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[background music]

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Welcome to mission control for
the iconic Hubble Space

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Telescope. This is a virtual 360
degree tour of the facility, so

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look around. You are currently
in the lobby outside of the

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Space Telescope Operations
Control Center at NASA’s Goddard

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Space Flight Center where the
day to day operations for Hubble

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are conducted. The tour starts
next to a 1/5th scale model of

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Hubble. The real telescope is
about the size of a large

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school bus, and would weigh
27,000 pounds on earth. Hubble

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works like many backyard
telescopes. It has two main

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mirrors to gather light from the
Universe and bring it into

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focus: a primary mirror almost 8
feet across, and a secondary

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mirror that is one foot across.
Light that enters the telescope

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hits the main mirror and gets
reflected toward the smaller

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secondary mirror. The secondary
mirror then reflects the light

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back through a small hole in the
primary, where it enters

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Hubble’s science instruments
housed in the back part of the

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spacecraft. Hubble has three
types of instruments that

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analyze light from the universe:
Cameras such as its main camera

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– the Wide Field Camera 3;
spectrographs such as Hubble’s

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newest one, the Cosmic Origins
Spectrograph; And

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interferometers which are called
Fine Guidance Sensors. In the

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middle of the spacecraft there
are four 100-pound reaction

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wheels used to reorient the
observatory. Based upon Newton’s

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Third Law of Motion — for every
action there is an equal and

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opposite reaction — turning a
reaction wheel in one direction

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causes Hubble to turn the
opposite way. Because Hubble is

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so massive, it only turns at the
speed of a minute hand on a

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clock. On the wall you see two
images of an incredible star

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nursery in the Eagle Nebula
nicknamed the Pillars of

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Creation. These images, among
Hubble’s most famous, reveal how

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different the pillars appear in
visible light and in

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near-infrared light. The
visible-light image shows small

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tips that contain newborn stars
and budding stars. The

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near-infrared light can see
through much of the gas and

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dust, revealing thousands of
stars behind the nebula and

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inside the pillars. Further
over, you see another image on

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the wall of astronauts in space
servicing Hubble. These

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servicing missions included
numerous spacewalks to help fix

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and upgrade the telescope. The
astronauts left Hubble in

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outstanding condition in 2009
during the final servicing

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mission and it is still at the
peak of its scientific

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capability today. Over by the
windows is a tool box that was

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used to transport tools into
space.  Known as the Auxiliary

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Transport Module, it provided
storage for the tools and safe

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passage to and from orbit,
protecting the tools from the

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extreme cold of space. Two
similar enclosures flew aboard

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the final Hubble servicing
mission. You are now in the

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Mission Operations Room. This is
the command center where flight

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engineers communicate with
Hubble. Every day they send

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commands to Hubble’s computers
to perform daily tasks, such as

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coordinating the science
instruments. They also retrieve

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all of Hubble’s science and
engineering data and make sure

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that none of it is missing or
corrupted. The flight engineers

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are also responsible for
monitoring the 10,000 plus items

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in that engineering data to make
sure that Hubble is operating

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safely and properly. If
something isn’t working

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correctly, they follow prepared
contingency plans. Right now the

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team is doing routine activities
that include uplinking orbit

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information and clearing memory
on the spacecraft for new

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messages. Prior to 2011, this
room was staffed 24 hours a day,

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7 days a week. But now most of
the daily functions are

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automated and it is only staffed
8 hours a day, 5 days a week. If

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a problem comes up while the
team is not present, they

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receive notifications on their
cell phones, which they can use

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to access some of the spacecraft
information and determine how

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serious the issue is. Depending
on the severity, they may have

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to come into this room to
address the issue. As you look

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around the room you will see a
large screen with a graphical

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display of Hubble that is driven
with real-time data. It includes

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accurate star charts, the
Earth’s position, the Sun’s

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location, and other
environmental data to allow the

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team to see how Hubble is
oriented. An operations clock in

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the corner of the room can be
set to track the length of an

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event, or simply display the
current time, in Universal Time

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- a standard time used in
astronomy and spacecraft

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operations. A model of the main
spacecraft computer sits in the

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back of the room. The actual
computer on Hubble manages the

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spacecraft’s daily functions
such as its power,

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communications, and pointing,
and it monitors the health of

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the spacecraft. It’s also
programmed to put Hubble in a

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safe state and be ready to talk
to the ground if a major problem

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occurs. An engineering model of
the spacecraft is also in the

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back of the room, which flight
engineers can use for reference

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if they need to. You have now
entered the Operations Support

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Room. This is where engineers
and specialists run tests before

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sending new updates to Hubble.
This ensures that these

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additions will not cause
anything unexpected to happen on

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the spacecraft. Today engineers
are testing potential changes to

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Hubble’s pointing control
system. This room is also used

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to figure out what’s going on
when the spacecraft isn’t

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operating as expected. The
behavior could be caused by a

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hardware failure, a strike from
a high-energy particle, a

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fluctuation in electrical
current, or something else. Once

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they know the cause, the team
figures out how to get the

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spacecraft back to normal
operations. As you look around

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the room, you’ll see a world map
on the large middle screen at

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the front. This shows engineers
whether Hubble is in sunlight or

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darkness, where it is with
respect to ground stations, and

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whether it is passing through a
high-radiation zone. Another

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large display on the left of the
front wall shows a ground-based

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image of what astronomical
object Hubble is scheduled to be

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looking at. This same display is
available to anyone on NASA’s

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Hubble Space Telescope website.
In the back of the room is a

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model of Hubble in the space
shuttle cargo bay. The model

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includes carriers that were
mounted in the cargo bay to

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carry new instruments,
spacecraft components, and

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astronaut tools during a
servicing mission. In fact,

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during these missions, this room
was fully staffed 24 hours a

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day, as engineers prepared
Hubble for the installation of

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new hardware. You are now in the
exhibit hallway outside of the

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Operations Support Room, which
displays some of the hardware

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that once flew on Hubble. In the
built-in display case you see a

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black electronic control box. It
was used to control gyroscopes -

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the sensors that can tell how
fast Hubble is turning and in

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what direction. During the first
servicing mission in 1993,

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astronauts replaced this control
box and learned that it had a

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bad capacitor. It was fixed so
that it could potentially be

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used on Hubble again, but it was
never needed. Farther over is

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one of the original tape
recorders used for storing

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science and engineering data.
During the second servicing

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mission in 1997, the tape
recorder was replaced with a

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solid state recorder, similar to
a USB memory stick, which could

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hold 10 times more information.
This was important as Hubble

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would later be upgraded with
better cameras that had over six

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times the resolution – requiring
more storage space. On the

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opposite wall, standalone
display cases contain tools

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developed to help astronauts
work on Hubble. The Mini Power

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Tool is a power screwdriver with
LED lights and interchangeable

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screwdriver bits. It is
connected to a battery pack so

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that it is smaller and easier to
handle. The tool was optimized

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so that astronauts could remove
over 100 small screws during an

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instrument repair. The bits are
color coded so that the

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astronauts can find the right
bit faster. Their bit caddy, a

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device built to carry the bits
and hold them in place, can hold

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7 bits at a time. Moving along,
the standalone display case to

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the right discusses technologies
developed for this remarkable

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observatory that have made their
way into everyday products here

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on earth. These include digital
mammography systems that use a

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Hubble camera detector that is
used in the fight against breast

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cancer and a sky map computer
program used by amateur

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astronomers that is based on
Hubble’s star catalog. On the

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walls to the left of the
standalone display cases hang

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various awards received by the
operations team as well as a

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letter from the President of the
United States congratulating the

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team on 25 years of Hubble
operations. In another section

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of the exhibit hallway, these
cases hold additional astronaut

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tools. The middle case contains
tools used to repair the

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Advanced Camera for Surveys, a
workhorse camera whose power

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supply failed after almost five
years of service. To fix the

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instrument, astronauts had to
first use this grid cutter to

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slice through a metal grid that
blocked a cover. That cover had

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to be removed to get to circuit
boards underneath it. The tool

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contains 12 individual cutter
blades on the back that sheared

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through the metal grid when the
front bolts were turned. The

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astronauts then used the
Fastener Capture Plate, a tool

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that prevented 32 small screws
that were holding that cover on

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the instrument from floating
away when they were taken out.

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Next, astronauts used a card
extractor to remove four circuit

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boards that were under that
cover. One of those circuit

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boards is located in the next
display case to the right. The

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overall repair was successful
and the instrument has now been

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functioning longer than it did
before its initial failure. The

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built-in display case on the
wall has parts of the first

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spectrograph that flew on Hubble
– the Goddard High Resolution

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Spectrograph. It flew in space
for 7 years. It was designed to

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measure the intensity of light
at different wavelengths to

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reveal information about an
object’s properties. The

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spectrograph used gratings,
which act like prisms to break

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the light into a rainbow.
Special detectors then captured

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the spectral data from the
rainbow of light produced by the

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gratings. The other half of the
built-in display case contains

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more awards received by the
Hubble mission as well as

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various Hubble mementos,
including US flags and

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spacecraft insulation that flew
in space. On the far wall is a

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copy of one of the blueprints of
the Hubble Space Telescope that

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was made in 1981 when Hubble was
being built. We hope you have

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enjoyed this tour of the Hubble
Space Telescope Control Center.

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To find out more about Hubble or
its operations, explore our

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website at nasa.gov/hubble or
follow us on social media

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@NASAHubble. [music fades out]