Monday, January 14, 2013

Bringing Hubble to Life

Honored to be part of Lockheed Martin’s recent history
by Rolan C.

I was only a blip in Lockheed Martin's recent history when COMSAT was acquired by Lockheed Martin around 2000, then was sold a few years later. I was a contractor with Lockheed Martin after having worked at COMSAT for 18 years in the tube area and the battery lab area. Circa 2002, one of the battery tests included testing some Hubble cells from NASA. I put them in a liquid nitrogen-cooled shroud in a vacuum chamber. I ran a couple of months of charge and discharge tests, stored, plotted and presented the data. I didn't know it at the time but those tests were the foundation for NASA deciding to postpone replacing Hubble's batteries. The Hubble batteries were later replaced in 2009.