Goddard Space Pioneer Honored

Frank Cepolina demontrates the use of a power tool used in the first Hubble servicing mission to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).

Goddard employee and Hubble Space Telescope guru Frank J. Cepollina is one of just 17 inventors selected for induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is the nation's premier center for the recognition of invention and creativity.

The announcement took place from the Science Committee Room of U.S. House of Representatives' Rayburn Building on February 11. Cepollina was selected for his pioneering concept of on-orbit satellite servicing by astronauts. Cepollina's involvement with Hubble dates back to the mid-1970s when he contributed to the telescope's modular instrument design, as well as its scientific command and control subsystem. Later, as satellite servicing project manager, he directed the design of generic servicing platforms and instrument carriers that have been used on Hubble and many other NASA spacecraft.

Cepollina, Project Manager for the Hubble Space Telescope Development Project, has been involved in designing Hubble's astronaut interfaces and power tools since the inception of the Shuttle program. After leading the world's first orbiting repair mission in 1984, as well as several other astronaut-assisted service calls, in 1993, he orchestrated the historic repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. He led three subsequent Hubble servicing missions, which added powerful new cameras and science instruments.

Currently, Cepollina is preparing for the next Hubble servicing mission, scheduled for late 2004. "There is a human nature in us to be inquisitive," Cepollina said. "We want to be explorers."

Cepollina will be formally inducted during a ceremony, which is scheduled to occur May 3 at the Hall's Akron, Ohio headquarters. He joins the ranks of other illustrious Hall of Fame aviation innovators such as Wilbur and Orville Wright, Igor Sikorsky, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Eli Whitney, Charles Goodyear, Louis Pasteur, Robert H. Goddard, Henry Ford, Alfred Nobel, Walt Disney, and many others.

For more information about the Inventors Hall of Fame and Invent Now, go to: http://www.invent.org/index.asp