Veteran NASA astronaut and University of Chicago alumnus John Grunsfeld will return the Edwin Hubble orbiting basketball to campus at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 30, at the Gerald Ratner Athletic Center, 5530 S. Ellis Ave.
Grunsfeld carried the Hubble basketball into space to honor Hubble’s days as an intercollegiate basketball player at UChicago. Hubble, SB,1910, PhD,1917, played forward on the Maroons’ Big Ten champion basketball teams of 1907-08 and 1908-09.
President Obama recently called Grunsfeld “The Hubble Repairman.” Grunsfeld has flown on three Hubble Space Telescope missions. He served as lead spacewalker in charge of spacewalking and HST activities in last May’s space shuttle mission to upgrade the telescope with new cameras and instruments and make repairs. He also led spacewalking and HST servicing during the March 2002 mission to the telescope.
Last May’s mission was HST’s fifth and possibly final servicing. During the course of 12 days in orbit, two teams of astronauts, including Grunsfeld, performed five space walks. The HST now is equipped with a full complement of working, state-of-the-art instruments.
The Hubble basketball will go on permanent display at the Ratner Center, also the home of Jay Berwanger’s 1935 Heisman Trophy.
A veteran of five space shuttle missions since 1995, Grunsfeld, SM’84, PhD’88, has logged 58 days in orbit, during which he completed eight space walks totaling nearly 60 hours. During his visit, Grunsfeld also will deliver the physics department’s Zachariasen Lecture on Oct. 29.
Related links
- Astronaut takes Hubble basketball globetrotting
- First Hubble Space Telescope images following the latest upgrades
- John Grunsfeld’s Oct. 28 public lecture
- Jay Berwanger, Heisman Trophy Winner 1935
—Prof. Kunle Odunsi
