Coffee + Donuts + Morning Meetings = Checking out Hubble

It’s been a couple of weeks since the astronauts safely landed after their repair mission to Hubble, and the public’s attention has turned to the current news of the day. But for a large number of people, the servicing mission is not done. In fact, it won’t really be over until the end of the summer.
We want to make sure that the instruments are working at their peak conditions before that point, so we are sure that the best science that can be done with Hubble is being done. The instruments on Hubble are complex and require careful check-out before they can be used for routine science operations. At times, the slow pace can be frustrating. It’s a series of baby steps, and after each step conditions are evaluated before going on to the next one. But this is all designed to catch anything out of the ordinary before it could become a problem that gets out of control.
Activities occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Hubble doesn’t know about evenings and weekends, and so, during this phase, neither do the scientists and engineers working on the check-out activities.
One main feature of the summer activities ...