Michael Griffin on HST

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin recently gave an address on the significance of the Hubble Space Telescope. I haven't had time to read it through yet. Maybe I'll get to read it in hard copy tomorrow on the plane to Houston for the Joint Integrated Simulation this week in preparation for the October STS-125 HST servicing mission.

I thought it appropriate to speak tonight about the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the greatest machines NASA has ever built, and about our relationship with that machine and what it has taught us about our universe and, more importantly, ourselves. In October, astronauts on Space Shuttle Atlantis will rendezvous with Hubble to repair and upgrade it for the fifth time in its nearly two decades of service. When they leave, it will be better than ever. It will be better than anyone ever imagined that it might be, back when I was working on the project some twenty-five years ago.