#sts-61

[lonestarflight]

"This scene, captured with a 35mm camera from inside the Space Shuttle Endeavour, shows the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Moon together."

Date: December 13, 1993

NASA ID: STS061

[lindahall]

STS 61 – Scientist of the Day

The Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched Dec. 2, 1993, on a mission known as STS-61.

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[gregorygalloway]

Franklin Story Musgrave (born 19 August 1935)

[gusgrissom]

Christmas Hanukkah in Space: Day 12

Jeff Hoffman of STS-61 demonstrates how a dreidel works in zero gravity and displays his traveling menorah on the first day of Hanukkah, December 1993. Hoffman was the second Jewish American astronaut and the first to spend the holiday in space.

[clio-muse-of-history]

December 2

In 1993, the space shuttle Endeavour lifted off on a mission to repair one of the greatest things humans have ever built--the Hubble Space Telescope.  Over 20 years later, that fucker's still zipping around in low Earth orbit, around 335 miles up.  And it's still working.  

So cheers to Richard O. Covey, Kenneth D. Bowersox, Kathryn C. Thornton, Claude Nicollier, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, F. Story Musgrave, and Thomas D. Akers (the crew of STS-61) for helping to fix something wonderful.

It's this muse's opinion that the HST is the second-greatest machine humans have ever built; the first will always be little Voyager 2, currently speeding towards interstellar space.

[lonestarflight]

"The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) begins its separation from the space shuttle Endeavour following a week and a half of repairs while in the space vehicle's cargo bay."

NASA ID: December 9, 1993

NASA ID: S94-00255

[lonestarflight]

"Astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman, in December 1993, signals directions to European Space Agency astronaut Claude Nicollier (out of frame), as the latter controls the Canadarm during the third of five spacewalks on the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Astronauts Hoffman and F. Story Musgrave earlier had changed out the Wide Field\Planetary Camera (WF\PC)."

Date: December 7, 1993

NASA ID: STS061-105-026

[lonestarflight]

"Endeavour with a Background of Dark Space and the Sun Displaying a Rayed Effect

One of Endeavour's spacewalkers on STS-61 captured this view of Endeavour backdropped with the blackness of space and the Sun displaying a rayed effect. The extended Remote Manipulator System arm that the astronaut was standing on for the photograph is seen in the left foreground."

Date: December 3-13, 1993

NASA ID: STS061-105-024