Specialty Press

Servicing the Hubble Space Telescope; Space Shuttle Atlantis – 2009

Complied by  Dennis R. Jenkins and Jorge R. Frank

Reviewed By  Ben Guenther, IPMS #20101

MSRP: $19.95 ISBN: 978-1-58007-138-3 Softbound, 9 x 9", 120 pages, 320 color photos Review copy courtesy of Specialty Press Website: www.specialtypress.com The authors have crammed a lot of information in 120 pages. To begin with you are treated to a brief history of the Hubble Space Telescope, the various science instruments and operations. (Eleven pages of color photos of stars, galaxies, etc…) Then to the deployment flight and each of the following four servicing missions. Finally, from the press conference announcing the final servicing mission, STS-125, thru crew training to the Kennedy Space Center processing the various components into a Space Shuttle Stack/payload and launch. The last twenty pages deal with the five EVAs that replaced instruments and repaired the Hubble Space Telescope. The photos are well chosen to represent what the authors mean to convey. The picture size varies from full page to 4 or 6 per page, but details are clear and defined. Many of the pictures I recognized from the NASA website, but some are ones that I have never seen before. It is a great reference source for not only the final servicing mission, but for the whole Hubble program up to this point and I can highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Space subjects. One note of interest on the back cover there is a message announcing the movie "IMAX Hubble 3D" in the spring of 2010 that will be of this last manned mission to service Hubble. It should be a great one to see, so pay attention to the movie announcements come March or April of next year. I would like to thank IPMS/USA and Specialty Press for the opportunity to review this book.