Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission
Live@Exploratorium
Public Event & Webcast live at www.exploratorium.edu/origins/hubble
March 1– March 9, 1pm PST *

On February 28, 2002, at 6am EST, NASA’S Space Shuttle will launch a series of space walks to replace parts and improve the functions of the Hubble Space Telescope. Exploratorium staff and guest scientists from the Space Telescope Science Institute will follow the mission and bring you highlights from each day’s activities. Attendance is free with admission to the Exploratorium. Live@Exploratorium will follow along with a museum event and a series of Webcasts beginning on March 1 and continuing through March 9. The events and Webcasts will be at 1pm PST and will be available online at www.exploratorium.edu/origins/hubble.

The Hubble webcast series is part of Live@Exploratorium: Origins, the Exploratorium's ongoing window into the observatories of the world. The live webcasts, hosted from the Phyllis C. Wattis Webcast Studio at the Exploratorium, will follow the servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope. The live shows will begin with eyewitness accounts of the launch of the Space Shuttle from Cape Kennedy and continue with guests from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
During the 350-mile-high service call, astronauts will perform five spacewalks.
They will grapple the Hubble telescope into the shuttle bay, retract it's solar arrays and replace them with a smaller, more powerful set of solar arrays, swap a fresh power control unit and install an experimental cooling system to revive Hubble's infrared vision. Space walkers, led by mission commander and veteran Hubble mechanic John Grunsfeld, will also install a powerful instrument called the "Advanced Camera for Surveys," which will extend the telescope’s vision deeper into the universe.

About the Origins Project

The Exploratorium's ongoing Origins Project examines what we know about our roots: the beginnings of the universe, of matter, of the earth, and of life itself. The project explores the results and progress of leading-edge research in physics, geosciences, and life sciences.

Origins goes beyond the science to bring the public the real process of scientific discovery through a presentation of the people, places, tools, and ideas of science.

*Event dates are subject to the servicing mission schedule. Check the Exploratorium website at for exact dates and times.