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[mysterious music]

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>>KATRINA: Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, or STIS, has capabilities

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like searching for black holes, and looking at the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars. 

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After STIS had a power failure in 2004, the Hubble team was

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tasked with replacing STIS' damaged electronics boards on the final servicing mission

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in 2009, which would turn out to be a memorable day for

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everyone involved. [mysterious music]

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[shimmering music] >>CHRISTY: So for about two

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years, I spent almost every day with the EVA team, the four crew members.

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>>MIKE: We practiced that repair many many times. We had practiced it in the water

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start to finish in the pool many times. >>CHRISTY: We spent hours and days and weeks and months

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going through, "What if this bolt fails? What if the cable doesn't mate?" So I felt

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that we had covered as much as we could have thought of going into this

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EVA. [music transitions] [electronic beeping]

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[electronic beeping] >>JAMES: So we came in

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to work here at the Space Telescope Operations Control Center at Goddard.

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>>JEFF: And our mechanical response team was watching the EVA in a

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conference room in building 29. >>JIM: I was located down at Johnson Space Center, along

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with the Servicing Mission Manager. >>MIKE: The day started out really well, you know I was

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trying to make it a perfect day, no problems. >>CHRISTY: So they get to the section where they

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have to remove the handrail on STIS. And you have to remove this handrail that was designed actually

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to help remove and install the entire instrument, in order to access

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the electronics board underneath. >>JEFF: And we watched Mike Massimino 

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attempt to do a rather simple task. All he had to do was remove four screws

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from a handrail. >>MIKE: And so the two screws at the top of the handrail came off fine,

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the one on the bottom left comes out fine, I go to the bottom right. >>JAMES: We could see

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the pistol grip tool spinning in the bolt head, 

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and the bolt wasn't coming out. >>MIKE (in space): I don't want to strip the thing.

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>>JIM: Oh my god. That was the first thing, you know it's "What are we going

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to do?" because this is a show-stopper right here. >>MIKE: For a while,

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probably about an hour or so, we were trying different bits on the end of the power tool,

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we were trying all kinds of things. >>JIM: You know and one thing

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that crossed my mind was, "What would you do? What would you do at home? You know, what 

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would you do in your garage?" And I was thinking back to my garage you know, and sometimes what would I do? 

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And I'd just kinda use the brute force you know. So I thought, what about just trying to break it?

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>>CHRISTY: It didn't even occur to a lot of us, just because it's something that you're not really ever trained to do

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or think of. >>JIM: So one of the things that I did was I called back to James Cooper back here at Goddard.

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>>JEFF: James Cooper called us on the speaker phone and said, "Hey guys, you're watching

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this right?" And we said, "Yeah yeah of course." >>JAMES: We found out we did have a mock-up

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of the STIS front panel with the handrail on it. >>JEFF: We came up with a quick plan. 

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Bill Mitchell said, "I've got two handrails inside the clean room."

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And Ken Dickinson and I came up with a plan for how to rig up the test. 

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So we scattered into the building to get all of the materials that we were going to need. 

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Well it was a Sunday, no one was around. So I'm literally running

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through the halls, and I run to where the techs would be, and I find a guy, Gene McAlicher,

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who happened to be in the building working on another project. So he said, "Whadoyou need?!"

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He seemed to pick up on my body language before I even asked my question. 

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And I told him, "I need a torque wrench, and I need a 

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digital fish scale." He takes off to go get it, I go to 190.

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Ken Dickinson's already in there, and within minutes, Bill Mitchell comes 

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busting through the door, carrying the handrail, still in his bunny suit

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and his clean room garment. We get the handrail all set up, everything's ready to go,

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we text a couple pictures back and forth, James gives us the green light.

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And Gene stands up on the table and starts pulling the handrail. And right when he got to 

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60 pounds, it snapped. Actually the bolt went flying. >>JAMES: Once we had

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done that test, then I got on our communication loops and

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called it to Jim Corbo. >>JIM: So ultimately, James came back 

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and said you know it would take about 60 pounds of force for them to break it off.

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>>CHRISTY: So Goddard had done the task, fed the information to us. We talked to the flight director about it

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to get him comfortable. >>DREW FEUSTEL (in space): Okay Mass, do you copy that? 60 pounds linear at the

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top of the handrail to bust off that bottom bolt. I think you got that in you.

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>>MIKE (in space): I could try. >>MIKE: I knew I could do that. >>CHRISTY: What if he pulls it off and there's debris?

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What if he pulls off the handrail and there's a sharp edge? What if he, it takes a lot of force

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and it comes back and hits him? >>JAMES: Mike Massimino was able to put some tape over

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the head of the bolt to contain debris that might go flying. >>MIKE: And so 

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I taped it as best I could, and Bueno was with me helping me to tape that thing, and then...

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>>HOUSTON OPERATOR: Houston, we don't have video right now, but we're ready. >>DREW (in space): Okay Mass- >>MIKE (in space): Here we go

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[dramatic music] [the handrail breaks]

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>>MIKE (in space): Pull! Disposal bag please.

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>>CHRISTY: Everyone erupted in cheers. Because when he

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pulled it off, he didn't see any debris, and he knew not to touch the potential sharp edges,

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and then we could just put that fastener capture plate on and complete the STIS task.

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>>MIKE: The rest of the repair went fairly well, STIS- I mean it was fine, actually. And

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STIS is working. >>JEFF: That one or two hours that I worked on 

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breaking the handrail, that task, that very well could go down as the highlight 

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of my career. >>MIKE: So the Goddard team did a great job,

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and I'm forever in their debt.

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>>KATRINA: That day, the Hubble team really showcased

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their teamwork and problem-solving skills. But the past 25 years of Hubble

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operations are full of individuals stepping up to tackle seemingly

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insurmountable obstacles. So stay tuned for more Hubble Memorable Moments.

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[music ends] [satellite whooshes by]

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[beep beep, beep beep, beep beep]

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[fading beeps]