Hubble 3D: Deep Space

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Seven brave astronauts

are about to launch...

...on the most challenging and

risky mission ever flown in space.

It's an interesting emotion

when you're sitting there...

...and realizing the clock is ticking.

- All the preparation time is over.

- Feel okay, sir?

It's time to go out there and do it.

All right. Okay, good.

It's not a foolhardy risk.

It's not roller-skating down

Massachusetts Avenue in rush hour.

If there's some risk that goes along

with achieving a dream...

...I think it's worth it, and that's

what I would wanna tell my kids.

Dreams do come true.

Okay.

It felt a lot like Christmas morning.

You know,

going to get to open your presents.

I got up, big smile on my face.

And marched down to have my breakfast

and just really felt great.

Right now the thing

I'm looking forward to most...

...is the solid rocket booster ignition.

I wanna get started.

I think it was my grandfather that had

the most profound influence on me.

He'd bring out the binoculars

and he'd teach us about the sky.

No idea that I would be

traveling to the stars.

But here I am.

I go through the mission

in my mind, and ask, "Okay...

...what could go wrong?" And I ask myself,

"Are we ready to handle that?"

This is the last chance

to save the Hubble Space Telescope.

Here we are, cocooned

on our beautiful planet Earth...

...warmed by the light of

our nearest star, the sun.

When you see our home like this,

you think:

"Out there in all that black space...

...could there be another place like it?

Is there anybody else out there?"

The nearest of those stars

is billions of miles away...

...but that hasn't stopped us

from exploring them.

Galileo was the first.

Centuries later,

we built a truly magical machine...

...the likes of which Galileo

could never have imagined.

Nice and slow.

The Hubble Space Telescope.

It took more than 10 years

and 10,000 people to build.

Keep coming.

And it would be the first of its kind

to be launched into orbit around the Earth.

Okay, stop. Okay, hold it steady.

This astronaut crew was

chosen to ferry the telescope to space.

Hello, hello, hello.

They launched from the Kennedy Space

Center aboard the shuttle Discovery.

T-minus 10, go for main engine start.

We are go for main engine start.

T-minus six, five, four...

...three, two, one.

And liftoff.

With the sea and clouds

of Earth reflecting on its door...

...the great silver bird was released

to soar in orbit 320 miles above us.

Soon it would be

sending images back to us.

Could we finally unlock

the secrets of the universe?

Would we discover

other worlds like ours?

The whole world waited for Hubble

to open its enormous eye.

Engineers have discovered that

the giant telescope has a warped mirror.

One of the mirrors in the Hubble Space

Telescope is out of shape, and as a result...

...the pictures it's sending back

are no better than those from the ground.

You've got a go to open the doors.

Okay, swinging.

It would be three long years

before astronauts could return...

...with a remedy for the ailing Hubble.

I'm not even pulling it,

I'm just coaxing it with my fingertips.

Pitch, pitch up a little.

They installed two instruments...

...each containing a huge contact lens.

Scientists hoped the new lenses

would sharpen the telescope's blurry vision.

Good work, guys.

Above the splendor of

Africa's Cape of Good Hope...

...Hubble was launched once again.

In the next 10 years,

three more astronaut crews...

...would repair and enhance

Hubble's vision even further...

...transporting us to places

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