idad
May 5, 2009, 1:29pm
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<p>[Astronaut</a> takes Hubble basketball globetrotting | The University of Chicago](<a href=“http://www.uchicago.edu/features/20090504_grunsfeld.shtml]Astronaut ”>http://www.uchicago.edu/features/20090504_grunsfeld.shtml )</p>
<p>
Grunsfeld, SM84, PhD88, was referring to a variety of assignments he undertook on two previous space shuttle flights, along with the ones he will face on his next mission, to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Last summer, he and his crewmates were preparing to make a series of five spacewalks in five days to service the telescope, named after another Chicago alumnus, Edwin Hubble.</p>
<p>Most people know Hubble, SB,1910, PhD,1917, as a famed astronomer, but he also starred as a forward on the Maroons Big Ten champion basketball teams of 190708 and 190809. As Grunsfeld prepared for his fifth space shuttle flight since 1995, he pondered how best to deflate a century-old ball that Hubble had tossed around in a 1909 victory against Indiana University.</p>
<p>The challenge: Find a way to compactly stow the old pigskin, which to everyones surprise lacks an air valve, aboard the space shuttle Atlantis for its scheduled launch May 11. The problem unfolded last summer in a series of e-mails between Grunsfeld and Michael Turner, the Bruce and Diana Rauner Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics.</p>
<p>Its a cosmic mystery as to how the ball was filled, and now for me how to drain it, Grunsfeld told Turner, who had borrowed the basketball from the Department of Physical Education & Athletics for its orbital flight. Grunsfeld plans to return the basketball personally to the University after the mission, when it will go on display at the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center.
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<p>Righteous. An undeflatable basketball that’s been in space and the very first Heisman Trophy on display? Who needs Heritage Hall when you got Ratner?</p>
<p>U of C is where it’s at!</p>
<p>Agreed. You can’t find this anywhere else.</p>