Successfully Building and Repairing the Hubble Space Telescope with Sue Rainwater

Kathy Sullivan Explores

Susan Rainwater is the former Chief of the EVA, Robotics, and Crew Systems Operations Division at NASA and a linchpin in the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. After graduating from Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering degree, Sue served at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in the late 1980s. She then came to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to work with the Hubble Space Telescope under the Mission Operations Directorate prior to the STS-31 deployment mission. Sue later played such a pivotal role in the first Hubble servicing mission that they brought two ladders into mission control when the time came to hang the crew plaque at the end of the mission. It was the first, and possibly only, time that the two co-leaders of the spacewalking team hung the plaque together—one of the highest honors in NASA flight control.

Today, you’ll hear Sue describe her memories of being a bookish kid from Michigan studying in the United Kingdom and the culture shock she experienced upon returning to the United States. She explains how hands-on building projects from her father and her move to the South to study became the first steps in her journey to NASA. Sue also highlights the Herculean effort around Hubble’s first servicing mission and describes how visits to Home Depot contributed to the building and repairing success of the Hubble Space Telescope.

“We had the greatest jobs. We got to work with brilliant people and brilliant minds. We were challenged every day, and every day was different.” - Sue Rainwater

This week on Kathy Sullivan Explores:

● Sue’s family background and early childhood in Michigan

● Her life in high school and path to Georgia Tech

● How her father influenced her interest in engineering

● Sue’s first role and responsibility at NASA

● The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and what it was known for

● The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory and Sue’s experience in water tank simulators

● What it was like to completely imagine a tool that did not exist before

● Sue’s first visits to the Hubble Space Telescope and cranking its solar arrays

● Her experience working as a flight controller at the Johnson Space Center’s mission control

● What it takes to calm the engineer sitting at a console in mission control

● Sue’s best memories from her time in Houston and life after NASA

Our Favorite Quotes:

● “Start with something you’re familiar with, adapt it, then modify it.” - Sue Rainwater

● “When you go out there and see the real vehicle, with all the real electrical cables and multi-layer insulation in place, you get a full appreciation of it and think that this is even more complex than you realize.” - Sue Rainwater

Connect with Sue Rainwater:

● Sue Rainwater on LinkedIn

Spaceship Not Required

I’m Kathy Sullivan, the only person to have walked in space and gone to the deepest point in the ocean.

I’m an explorer, and that doesn’t always have to involve going to some remote or exotic place. It simply requires a commitment to put curiosity into action.

In this podcast, you can explore, reflecting on lessons learned from life so far and from my brilliant and ever-inquisitive guests. We explore together in this very moment from right where you are--spaceship not required.

Welcome to Kathy Sullivan Explores.

Visit my website at kathysullivanexplores.com to sign up for seven astronaut tips to improving your life on earth and be the first to discover future episodes and learn about more exciting adventures ahead!

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