Working in Space

High above planet Earth, a human helps an ailing machine. The machine, in this potentially touching story, is the Hubble Space Telescope , which is not in the picture. The human is Astronaut Steven L. Smith , and he is seen above retrieving a power tool from the handrail of the Remote Manipulator System before resuming work on HST in 1999 December. For most astronauts , space is not a place for relaxation and vacation , but rather a place for hard work. Since many space missions involve costly equipment and complicated experiments, astronauts are usually people of considerable knowledge and training . Although the hours may be long and work may be taxing, one frequently reported perk of working in space is the spectacular view .