[ Crinkling Sound ]
"As Hubble orbits Earth..."
[ Crinkling Sound ]
"it must be protected against drastic changes in temperature."
[ Crinkling Sound ]
"Thermal blankets have provided that protection for over 30 years,
"thanks to a team of skilled thermal blanket technicians."
[ INTENSE MUSIC ]
"Thermal blanket technicians craft the mylar shields..."
"... that have helped Hubble explore the universe's secrets."
[ INTENSE MUSIC ]
"Paula Cain, Thermal Blanket Technician"
[ SEWING MACHINE SOUND ]
I guess I had been here maybe a few days and they said "oh you know HST is coming back!"
At that point, I didn't even know what HST was.
Then I came to found out it was Hubble, so that was interesting to find out I'm like
"Oh cool!" You know? Because I had seen Hubble in the news and things like that.
"Paula's first day at NASA was working for the Hubble Space Telescope."
But it was fun and I wouldn't have had any other way because it sort of, how would you say,
what do they say? "Baptism by fire?" So if I can make it through this, I'm good!
[ FUN MUSIC ]
"She came to NASA with a background in fashion design."
[ WORK SOUNDS ]
It's very similar, it's just that it's a different type of body, because you have
to worry about how things shift, how they're gonna fit, the angles, everything
just like how you do with pattern making and design.
I still do a little bit now and my biggest thing right now
is I like to design handbags because it's quicker.
Especially fabbing blankets and everything I want to go home and be more creative and
design something else. I think that's why I like it so much because
it sort of makes me be creative.
[ VERY FUN MUSIC ]
"Paula worked on servicing mission 4 (SM4) for the Hubble Space Telescope"
I worked on a couple of little structures that went on
parts of the M.U.L.E. for the servicing mission.
"M.U.L.E stands for Multi-Use Lightweight Equipment Carrier"
"A vital part in transporting equipment for upgrades and repairs during SM4"
[ VERY FUN MUSIC ]
When it came back, the M.U.L.E, they had taken all of the blankets off
and they had to repair blankets and then we had to put them back on.
[ VERY FUN MUSIC ]
I was worried, and I wanted to make sure I was doing everything right that I was supposed to.
Because at that point I didn't know like if I touch this and the whole thing was
just gonna knock over, you know, because you have these big ideas in your
head of what could go wrong, and I have a wild imagination!
[ VERY NICE MUSIC ]
I do think it was pretty cool to come in and be working on the servicing mission for Hubble.
I don't think there's many places that something like that could happen you know?
Where you come in and you're working on something that important
that you know is in history.
In that sense it does, when I think about it, Hubble that I touched blankets going on there,
wow it's still up there! People say "it's still going strong!" Yeah, I had something to do with that!
You know? In a small way, but yeah it does make you think about it more
because before I was working here,
yeah I knew about it and I had watched things but now it's, you know,
a little closer to your heart.
[ BEAUTIFUL MUSIC ]