>> Hi, everybody.
Josh Byerly here inside Mission Control, Houston.
I want to welcome Milt Heflin, former Flight Director,
former Leader of the Johnson Space Center.
He is coming back to visit us today.
It's been 20 years since a pretty important mission,
STS-61.
Which was the first servicing mission
to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Let's set the stage here real quick.
Hubble was launched back in 1990.
And then once the pictures started coming down they noticed
that there was something wrong.
It was a little bit blurry and the images were not nearly
as sharp as what they expected it to be.
There was a problem with the mirror.
Right?
>> Correct.
Absolutely.
>> So then what happened?
>> Well, how are we going to fix it?
>> Yeah.
>> You know we got to figure that out.
Which I think we're really good at.
>> Yeah.
>> Which we've proved.
If you think back to that time, we were in a situation
where there were a number of things going on that kind
of put NASA in a -- kind of in the doghouse a little bit.
>> Yeah.
>> We had lost Mars Observer when it got close
to getting in orbit around Mars.
We were going through it suffering some
of the hydrogen fuel leaks on shuttle.
Grounding the fleet temporarily.
>> Yeah.
>> And so it was, you know, what have you done for me lately?
And so from a congressional
and a budget standpoint there was a lot of pressure.
>> Yeah.
>> And I showed up in my office one day.
I actually got -- I'm not going to read this.
But here's the actual piece of paper that I got which is a page
out of the Congressional Record.
>> Mm-hm.
>> And I don't know who put it there.
I still don't know who put it there.
But there's a paragraph in there
that says NASA you've got basically one more chance.
>> Yeah.
>> With what's been going on.
And so that painted a picture where we were starting at.
A lot of pressure to get it done right.
>> So you launch this mission
and there was back-to-back spacewalks
to go there and fix Hubble.
Talk about, you know, what was the biggest pressure.
When did you know that, okay, this is going to be a success.
Or what were you afraid of?
Like, what was the sort of the thing that kept you up at night?
>> I think where it hit me was probably
after our 14th independent review.
>> [laughter]
>> That we had.
Because I was convinced -- good people by the way too --
they wanted to help us.
And towards the end of this it was
like they can't ask any more questions.
I mean we're there.
We're prepared.
And in fact, I'll be honest with you.
I went into the mission extremely cocky
because I was convinced this team could do it.
>> Yeah.
>> And to sit in Mission Control and watch it advance
to where each day more smiles came up on the faces
of the flight controllers.
>> Yeah.
>> And people involved including the Goddard team.
And it was just great to see that.
>> Yeah. And we just saw the shot of you back, I guess,
20 years ago running that mission.
That was actually in this very room.
>> Yes.
>> It looks a little bit different now.
We kind of modernized it a little bit, but it's.
>> Yeah. And my hair is a different color
than it was back then too [laughter].
>> So when did you know.
Like, during the mission, you know,
we do these back-to-back spacewalks.
When did you know, okay, we've done it?
It's going to be a success.
Was it at the end of it or was it a [inaudible].
>> Well. Great question because the very first spacewalk
that we did we had trouble closing some access doors
on the.
>> Yeah.
>> And I went into this mission wanting to do one thing
and that was to keep a beat.
I wanted to get things done when we said we were going
to get them done and not get behind.
And that very first spacewalk where we had a problem.
It was, oh boy, I don't want this.
We got to get that done today and not worry about it later.
Which we did.
That caused me and the team --
I think when we left mission control
after that very first spacewalk.
I think that caused us to think, oh, that's great.
We are only one EVA, we got four more to do.
>> Yeah.
>> But by golly we solved a significant problem in time.
And as the next EVA occurred
where we had a solar ray problem.
And we decided that we were going
to throw the solar ray by Mission rules.
Well typically you talk
about that even though you decided you were going
to do that.
>> Right.
>> We didn't talk about it.
We just did it.
>> You did it.
>> Because we -- and to stay on schedule.
To get it all done.
>> Talk about just the task of having to do back-to-back EVAs.
And that we typically don't do that except for Hubble.
You know, we had basically -- what was it --
five back-to-back EVAs?
>> We had five back-to-back.
>> Yeah.
>> In fact, when the mission started I think there were,
like, two on the books.
And then we went to three.
And then we decided we had to do another and another, so forth.
Well that was pretty stressful to take the team
and go through and do that.
But you know that -- the thing that really did looking
at Space Station was it did prove
that we can do what we say we're going to do.
We can do these things back to back.
I like what Covey said at the end of the mission.
He --
>> Dick Covey.
>> He basically -- Dick Covey, the commander.
Basically after the landing back
at Ellington he said we were successful
because we had good equipment.
We had good people.
We had good preparation.
>> Yeah. You mention Space Station.
Let's talk about some of the lessons learned.
You know, do you think, and we talked about this before.
But do you think that, you know, people looked
at designing Space Station and building it and they're, like,
wow, this is going to take so many spacewalks.
And it's going to take so much time.
Do you think the learning curve is a little bit less
with Space Station because of these Hubble missions?
>> Oh absolutely.
Oh no, absolutely.
We were able to -- put it to you this way --
the things on Hubble that were built to be spacewalk friendly.
>> Mm-hm.
>> Worked great.
Some of the things that we added to the mission which due
to budget cuts Hubble folks weren't able to have them
in a position like that.
So we had to sort of design it on the fly
or prior to the mission.
We got those done but they took longer time.
>> Yeah.
>> And so that said, if you're going
to go build a station build it
so that spacewalkers can assemble it.
>> Yeah.
>> And that's what we did.
>> Yeah. And it worked out.
>> It worked out great.
>> So last question for you.
Do you-- when you take a look at just how much Hubble has sort
of become such an iconic thing.
It's in, I mean, people use the pictures from Hubble
as there wallpapers on their computers and stuff.
>> Yeah.
>> Do you look back and go wow, you know, I was a part of that.
I mean, does it still even 20 years later?
>> Yes. On chances I go out
and speak occasionally people always ask me well do I think
there's other intelligent life in the cosmos or whatever.
>> Right.
>> And I tell -- you gotta be kidding me.
I said that the very first time we saw this picture from Hubble,
which was a point in the sky where the handle
and the Big Dipper came together, you know.
Very very small point and Hubble showed this deep field view.
>> Yeah.
>> With thousands of galaxies.
And we live in a galaxy.
We are a solar system in a galaxy.
And you're telling me that's all that's there.
>> Mm-hm.
>> You've got to be kidding me.
>> Yeah.
>> And that's what I think about when I think
about what we did to Hubble.
>> Milt Heflin, former Flight Director, former Leader
of the Johnson Space Center,
key part of the STS-61 mission 20 years ago today.
>> Yes.
>> That's when it launched and it went up there
and helped us fix Hubble.
Probably one of the highest profile missions
since the space shuttle ever flew.
>> Well, Josh, I thank you for inviting me back
to my favorite building and all of human spaceflight.
>> Yeah. It never gets old does it?
>> It does not.
>> Thanks a lot, Milt.
I appreciate it.
>> Thank you.
Thank you.