Universe Today
Photographer
Michael Soluri
was granted unprecedented access to document the people and events behind the final Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4, STS-125, which launched in 2009. He has published these images in a new book, "Infinite Worlds: People & Places of Space Exploration." Soluri has provided Universe Today with an exclusive gallery of images from the book, and also told us about his experiences in being able to follow for three years the behind the scenes lead-up to the mission.
Read his account and see more images below. You can read our full review of
Infinite Worlds
here
.
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K. Megan McArthur (PH.D.), the STS-125 Hubble SM4 Robotic Arm engineer during final servicing mission to Hubble, May 2009. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.[/caption]
From a very early age following the space program and over the decades as a documentary photographer on location at various NASA flight centers, I always felt something was missing: an honest, unscripted visual sense of the people behind the scenes that make human and robotic space flight possible.
Yes, it's always inspiring to experience and photograph a rocket launch with remote equipment or from 3 miles away. However, the access pattern over time has been the same. Writers and photographers herded together into controlled situations that in the end capture the same shot. Given security issues, this is understandable and the results over the decades are predictable.
To achieve the results experienced in
required earning the trust of both the crew as well as Hubble and shuttle flight management. That trust contributed to being asked by the STS-125 crew to coach them in making better more visually communicative images of their experiences at Hubble. It also enabled me to be a part of and be accepted into the many worlds of that mission during good times and challenging ones.
The edited results comprise my book and exhibitions. Looking back on that journey, I am humbled by the mutual respect and trust extended to me by a remarkable, "made in the USA" labor force that for the most part no longer exists.
--
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Mark Turczyn, Hubble Space Telescope Senior Systems Engineer. In 'Infinite Worlds' he said, ""Every time we ran out of time … we created more." Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.[/caption]
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Office white-board of Mark Turczyn, HST Senior Systems Engineer. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.[/caption]
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Greg Cecil, a Thermal Protection Systems Technician, replaced and caulked damaged tiles on the cockpit area of the space shuttle. He is currently a middle school science teacher. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.[/caption]
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Christy Hansen, EVA Task Lead and STS-125 SM4 astronaut Drew Feustel in cargo bay of Atlantis in July 2008. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.[/caption]
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Four of the "space-walking" astronauts and their mission trainers reviewing one of the tool boxes they will be accessing in the cargo bay of the shuttle during the last service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.[/caption]
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Mini Power Drill System, designed at NASA Goddard SpaceFlight Center used by astronauts on the final mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, May 2009. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.[/caption]
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The astronaut EVA crew of Hubble SM4 - last servicing mission to the Hubble by a space shuttle crew. From left to right: John Grunsfeld, Drew Feustel, Michael Good, and Mike Massimino. Image taken at Goddard Space Flight Center, July 2008. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri. [/caption]
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John Grunsfeld, just before entering shuttle Atlantis for his fifth mission in space and his third to the Hubble Space Telescope. Grunsfeld wrote "Climbing Mountains" for Infinite Worlds. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.[/caption]
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Atlantis just after roll out and pad lock down at Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center for the STS-125 Hubble Servicing Mission. March 31, 2009. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.[/caption]
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Jill McGuire, Manager, Hubble SM4 Crew Aids and Tools, in Mission control in Houson during EVA 4, May 2009. Credit and copyright: Michael Soluri.[/caption]
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Self Portrait by John Grunsfeld and shuttle Atlantis on the Hubble Space Telescope -- orbiting Earth. Image courtesy Michael Soluri.[/caption]
Several of Soluri's images of the SM4's EVA tools and photos by the Atlantis crew are part of an exhibition at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Outside the Spacecraft: 50 Years of Extra-Vehicular Activity
, on view at the Air and Space Museum through June 8. There's also an
online exhibition.
Smithsonian Associates
is the presenting organization.
Soluri will give a presentation and do a book signing on April 11, 2015 at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden. Soluri will be joined by four individuals who played key roles in Service Mission SM4: astronaut Scott Altman, the STS-125 shuttle commander; David Leckrone, senior project scientist; Christy Hansen, EVA spacewalk flight controller and astronaut instructor; and Hubble systems engineer Ed Rezac. More information on that event can be found
here
.
