Why Hubble Broke and How It Was Fixed

angry tapir writes "I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Charles (Charlie) Pellerin, who was NASA's director of astrophysics when the Hubble Space Telescope launched with its seemingly fatally flawed optical system. Pellerin went on to head up the servicing mission that finally fixed the telescope and for that was awarded NASA's highest honor, a Distinguished Service Medal. Since Hubble he has done a lot of thinking about the problems that led up to the error and how organizations can best avoid making similar mistakes."

Re:The real hero

[JosKarith]

I guess the flawed optics were another example of NASA's short-sightedness...

Re:The real hero

[Big Hairy Ian]

> I guess the flawed optics were another example of NASA's short-sightedness... Groan.... I should have seen that coming!

Re:Interesting read

[Anne_Nonymous]

Mars Impactor was designed to hit the Red Planet at 600 mph, but because of The French, it hit the planet at 1000 kph instead, ruining the mission.

Re:Wonderful article.

[neurogeneticist]

Totally agree. This is actual news for nerds who are interested in how to effectively manage, and be managed, by other nerds. Or, we could go back to arguing whether Autism is a fake diagnosis, based on, you know, our skill with Java. I kid, I kid. Sort of.