It was a proud day at Redmond’s Crane Aerospace & Electronics Aug. 27, as the company’s Electronics Group hosted four members of NASA’s Shuttle Atlantis team which in May, successfully repaired the Hubble Telescope using key products manufactured in Redmond.

Shuttle Pilot Gregory C. Johnson, a Seattle native and University of Washington graduate, along with Commander Scott D. Altman, Mission Specialist K. Megan McArthur and Mission Specialist Andrew J. Feustel, toured the Crane campus, met with workers and held an afternoon media conference highlighted by a video documenting Servicing Mission 4 (SM4), the final trip to the Hubble.

The Electronics Group Power Solutions at Crane created the Interpoint brand SMRT series of DC/DC converters that provides power to the telescope. With the refurbishment completed during SM4, NASA hopes to extend the Hubble’s life until 2014.

“It took a long time to get here, a lot of work, a lot of people,” Altman stated at the media conference. “We’re all ready to see the proof of the pudding on September 9,” when new images from space will be released to the public.

Johnson’s roles in the mission were to assist with the shuttle’s ascent and rendezvous with the Hubble and to shoot footage for an IMAX film. Feustel was one of the space walkers on the mission. McArthur served as the flight engineeer for ascent and re-entry and worked the robotic arm that moved the Hubble into position. Altman’s biggest challenge was to safely land the shuttle. He described, “3,000 practice approaches before the real one,” and added, “There’s no changing your mind once you bring it down.”

The video about SM4 was exhilarating, mostly because — pardon the pun — the astronauts are so “down-to-Earth.” They grinned like little kids in a candy store as they recounted the rush of the Atlantis lift-off.

“How was that ride?,” an off-camera voice asked.

Johnson laughed, “It was wild! But it was good!”

The crew members obviously enjoyed mugging for the cameras as they did flips in mid-air — in McArthur’s case, with her hair flying out like a character from a Dr. Seuss book — retrieving a runaway tortilla as it drifted around the cabin of the shuttle, and so forth.

But along with the lighthearted moments, including jokes about the stunts in the movie “Top Gun,” the mission included very serious business — such as Altman flying in tandem with the Hubble at 17,500 mph.

Removing the Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) to make room for the higher-resolution Wide Field Camera 3 did not go quite as planned. It was stuck inside the instrument panel and an attached piece had to be forcibly broken off, which Altman compared to, “That’s me, in my garage.”

After the video, the astronauts talked about “passing the torch to the next generation,” moving away from shuttle missions into planet exploration.

The Reporter told the astronauts about the Lake Washington School District’s mission to improve math and science education, to better prepare students for the jobs of the future — and asked about the breadth of career paths that can lead this generation into space endeavors.

Responding as “the local guy,” Johnson admitted, “As astronauts, math and science are our bread and butter.” But regardless of the field of study, “also important for our nation, our biggest strength is our intellectual capability,” he said.

Feustel added, “We all took different paths to where we are. It’s important for students to do what they like, study what they enjoy, to find their place, be part of this mission.”