Origins Hubble a view to the edge of space  
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hubble's crew


Click on a question below to hear the response as a RealVideo clip.

What do you do?

If you could have the Hubble Telescope for a day, where would you point it?



Francis Rondeau
Aerospace Fabrication Engineering Technician

In 1984, before he joined NASA, Francis Rondeau was fixing cars. Before that, he was fixing planes. Now, he doesn't repair things as much as he builds them. Francis has had a hand in working the metal that's gone into many of the NASA satellites currently orbiting the earth. He's done a lot of work on Hubble, and finds it challenging stuff. "It's prototype work," he says. "They bring us down drawings of things that have never existed, and say 'Okay, make this.'"

Francis starts up his trusty Truematic 240.

His shop, a huge space the size of a football field, is a favorite stop on NASA's tour of Hubble headquarters. Francis gets a charge out of showing his work to visitors, and of thinking that the things he's made are up in the sky. He's happy to be able to learn so much about astronomy and physics from some of the top people in their fields. Francis is only five or six years from retirement, but he's hoping he can stick around until NASA launches a manned mission to Mars. "That would be out of sight," he says.


return to Hubble's Crew



© 2001 Exploratorium