Someone who was on-scene during the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope, and who now counts herself among the legions of my dedicated readers, let me know that my last column did not live up to my usual high standards for accuracy and completeness.
My reporting implied that the Perkin-Elmer Corp. of Danbury was responsible only for manufacturing the Hubble’s primary mirror.
My friend set me straight, saying that “Perkin-Elmer not only built the primary mirror but also built the entire telescope to include the primary and secondary mirror, the metering structure that connects the mirrors, and the focal plane (where the science instruments and the Fine Guidance Sensors are housed). The entire telescope was sent to California on the Super Guppy flying from Stewart Air Field in NY to California. (PE did not supply the science instruments, except for the FGSs, which are used for pointing and for science). Once in CA, Lockheed added the spacecraft bus components and the science instruments.”
She also told me that “what you probably saw flying from Danbury was one of the Fine Guidance Sensors. Each FGS is as big as a baby grand piano. I believe a C130 was used to fly it from Danbury to California.”
Well. That kind of diminishes my brush with glory. I’m a big fan of the Fine Guidance Sensors, too, but they just aren’t as sexy as that primary mirror.
I forgive my correspondent, however, because she did admit that she enjoyed the rest of my blog. “As usual,” she wrote, “it was very well written.”
To learn more accurate information about the Hubble Space Telescope and the symposium to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its launch, go to www.wcsu.edu/hubble.
