16 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2020FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Has it really been 30
years? Looking back, I
was just a kid. Granted,
I was a kid with three kids of my
own, but I was still wet behind
the ears.
I had come to Caltech fresh
from graduate school to take a
postdoctoral position that paid
$22,000 a year. With over half of
that destined for rent, the num-
bers added up to “poor,” but we convinced ourselves we
wouldn’t be there for long. I’d spend a year helping get
ready for the launch of our space telescope, then a year
or two getting some science done. From there, it would
hopefully be on to the closest thing to immortality
academia has to offer — the track to tenure.
Five months later, the world watched in disbelief
when Challenger exploded shortly after
launch.
It was over four years before Discovery
finally carried the Large Space Telescope,
newly renamed Hubble, into orbit. A lot had
happened in the meantime, but on that
morning in April 1990, it was “attaboys” all
around.
The thing is, all it takes to topple a huge
pile of “attaboys” is a single “aw s---.” So it
was a month later as Bob Light and I sat at
computer screens in front of NASA Select
television cameras, staring in confusion at
the very first image from Hubble. Jim
Westphal, the principal investigator on the
Wide Field and Planetary Camera, was
standing behind us talking to the cameras.
The script had called for a quick show. The Hubble
image would be spectacular in comparison to a ground-
based image of the same field. Glasses would be raised
in triumphant toast and those of us fortunate to be in
the right place at the right time would ride off into a
sunset filled with wonder. But to quote the poet Robert
Burns, “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men ...” The
newly launched miracle of science and engineering had
the most basic, no-one-could-ever-miss-it problem a
telescope mirror could have.
Lots of people independently recognized what was
going on, but on my personal timeline, the first was
Roger Lynds. Roger was known as a bit of an eccentric.
At WFPC team meetings, Roger tended to walk around
rather than sit, and you could always tell when he wasthinking because he would rub his bald head. The more
agitated he was about something, the more vigorous the
self-administered cranial massage. After the debacle of
first light, Roger was staring at the screen and polishing
his crown with wild abandon. Then he made a
pronouncement.
“Damned thing’s got spherical aberration!”
It would turn out that the $3 billion problem with
Hubble came down to a submillimeter paint chip that
nobody bothered to look for because they needed an
answer right now. Rushing the process is rarely a
good idea.
Most readers probably look back on 1990 as the now-
seldom-discussed prelude to Hubble’s phoenixlike rise
from the ashes. Hubble went on to deliver on all of its
original promise and more. But in the moment, lacking
a crystal ball, astronomers greeted the news by throw-
ing themselves off of observatory catwalks, figuratively
if not literally.
I was part of Hubble’s ultimate triumph as well.
Maybe I’ll return to it in three years with the 30th anni-
versary of the first Servicing Mission. But for now,
hopefully this handful of words will offer the reader
some small glimpse into what it felt like to a young
postdoc who had hitched his wagon to a wild and uncer-
tain horse.
There’s also a cautionary tale hiding in this bit
of admittedly romanticized remembrance. If the space
biz taught me anything, it is that world-
shaking events are usually the ones you
should have seen coming, but didn’t.
Forgetting that physics doesn’t give a
rodent’s posterior about schedule, budget,
or politics is an invitation for Murphy’s law
to come out and play.
Now, with Hubble nearing the end of its
life, it’s the James Webb Space Telescope
proclaiming, “Damn the torpedoes and full
speed ahead!” Having blown through its
original $1 billion price tag and 2007 launch
date, some “lovingly” refer to the $10 billion
Webb as “The Telescope That Ate
Astronomy.” A friend who works on the
project recently confided in me about what
he sees as “big scaries,” but went on to say
that so much is riding on Webb’s success that “it is
unthinkable that it won’t work.”
I shudder at that. Orbiting at L2, this time there will
be no do-overs. I have tremendous respect for the
people working on Webb, but physics can be a perverse
comedian, and “it has to work” is probably its favorite
straight line.
Oh well. You pays yer money and you takes yer
chances. For now, I vicariously share the excitement of
the young astronomers who are waiting and hoping for
a ride like the one I was privileged to take. Fingers
crossed!Snapshot memories of Hubble’s early days.
No crystal balls
The first-light image
made with the Hubble
Space Telescope and
its Wide Field and
Planetary Camera
(right) shows the
image artifacts that
challenged the scope
before its fix. On the
left is a ground-based
image of the same
field, made with a
100-inch scope.
NASA/ESA
Most readers
probably look
back on 1990
as the
now-seldom-
discussed
prelude to
Hubble’s
phoenixlike
rise from
the ashes.BY JEFF HESTER
Jeff is a keynote
speaker, coach,
and astrophysicist.
Follow his thoughts
at jeff-hester.comBROWSE THE “FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION”
ARCHIVE AT http://www.Astronomy.com/Hester