The Shuttle Era

The Discovery Channel's When We Left Earth covered the space shuttle era last night. For all the public and media indifference to shuttle flights over the years, the documentary reminds us what a remarkable flying machine the shuttle is. Thirty years out, there's still no other spacecraft in the world that comes close to the shuttle's capabilities.

Perhaps the dramatic high point of the shuttle program was the repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA had launched Hubble-- a huge, expensive science project-- only to discover the lens system was faulty. The agency that had accomplished the legendary feat of putting men on the Moon was in danger of becoming just another federa; bureaucracy that couldn't get anything right. More than the future of astronomy was riding on the dangerous and demanding repair mission. Extraordinary film clips helped tell the story of the repair mission that saved Hubble and gave NASA back its can-do spirit and image.

Ironically, the next shuttle mission will be the last servicing mission to Hubble. After the Columbia tragedy, NASA at first decided not to fly another mission to Hubble, saying it was too dangerous, but the outcry from the public and the science community led to a reversal of that decision.