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When astronauts on the space shuttle Atlantis repaired and upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope, they used tools designed by a Frederick native. Michael Liszka, of Laurel, is an engineer with ATK at its Beltsville office. Liszka, who grew up in Frederick and graduated from Frederick High School in 2000, was part of a team that worked with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to design the special tools needed to work on the telescope. "I came in about halfway through the project," said Liszka, who has been with ATK for 2 1/2 years. After graduating from Frederick High School, he earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 2004 and a master's degree in aerospace engineering in 2006, both from the University of Maryland. He said the ATK engineers designed and made the tools, then took them to the Space Center in Houston, Texas, for testing. Astronauts used the tools in underwater labs to simulate working in space. "Some of our engineers are SCUBA certified and would go in with them." Liszka didn't dive, but did a lot of work on the surface in Houston and with NASA technicians at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. Astronauts would give feedback on how easy the tools were to use, or suggestions on how to improve them. Liszka has been watching the five-day repair job in space on NASA TV, which streams live on the Internet. "Some of our engineers are on console in Houston and at Goddard to be on hand if there were questions about the tools," Liszka said, referring to those who were directly linked to the astronauts during the project. Liszka has also been working on older tools that were used in prior space shuttle flights. "There are a lot of pistol-grip tools that were designed in 1996 and 1997," he said. "We have been refurbishing them and upgrading a lot of them. Some were brought back in the shuttles, there are some left in the International Space Station." Liszka said he always enjoyed taking things apart and seeing how they worked as a youth. In middle school and high school, he focused on math and physics. Those are definite skills needed for a career such as his, he said, when asked about advice for high school students who may want to consider a career in aerospace engineering. "You may not use math in everything, but it is good to have that mindset," he said. Astronauts in the Atlantis released the telescope on Tuesday after its overhaul. NASA officials said it should give the telescope another five to 10 years of service. NASA will run a series of tests on the telescope through the summer and it should return to sending images back from space by early fall.
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