Astronauts are a funny bunch. Really. Take, for instance, a group of them that last year flew to the Hubble Space Telescope – which has been in orbit since 1990 – on a servicing mission to make repairs and upgrades.
As seen in the new IMAX film “Hubble 3-D,” the seven astronauts on the STS-125 Mission had some serious business to take care of. Traveling at 17,500 mph, they first had to grab and secure the telescope, then make various adjustments to specialized cameras and spectrographs, as well as replace batteries and insulation, and install new gyroscopes. This involved space walks, or extra-vehicular activities, and, as shown in the film, dealing with plenty of unexpected hassles, all of which could easily become life-threatening.
Played out in 3-D on huge IMAX screens, the events in the film are eye-popping and breathtaking. Director Toni Myers even uses images caught by the Hubble to send us across the galaxies to witness places we can’t ever go.
It’s fantastic viewing, but it’s also a real people movie. The astronauts on board might be braver and smarter than most of us, but they make us feel as if we’re right up there with them – weightless and in a cramped space.
Back down on Earth, they’re just regular folks. At a recent press event in Washington, D.C., a few members of the STS-125 crew shared their thoughts about the mission. Some of them were serious; others were surprisingly funny.
“It’s been 10 months since we flew,” said Commander Scott Altman. “But watching the movie, I felt like I experienced the flight again. It was special to sit there watching it with my wife right next to me and feel like we were going together, having that shared experience.”
This was Altman’s fourth space flight, and one thing that’s always been memorable to him is those last 10 seconds of the countdown.
“At that point, you’ve been sitting in the vehicle for up to three hours,” he said. “You’re in a very familiar environment from being in simulators. So as the count is going on, you tell yourself, ‘Well, we’re in another sim. We’re just doing this again.’ But at t-minus 10, the countdown is picking up a bit. At t-minus 6, the shuttle main engines light up and the vehicle shakes, and you think, ‘Hmm, this is a little different than the sim.’ But then at zero – when you get to the solid rocket boosters ignition – BOOM! Everything is shakin’ and rockin’ and rollin.’ And you go, ‘Wow! We are NOT in a sim.’ ”
