Dr. Edward Cheung: Proving to all Arubans they can reach for the stars!

The launching of Space Shuttle Atlantis on Monday, May 11, has again brought to the forefront of island an individual that is a great source of pride for the people of Aruba; Dr. Edward Cheung, Principle Engineer of the Hubble Space Telescope Service Project. His work has been vital over the years in keeping the telescope operative and innovative, designing and implementing, along with his team, equipment that solved various problems, some impossible to anticipate, which cropped up once the space observatory was placed in orbit. On a number of occasions they managed to save the beleaguered project.

Dr. Chueng was raised in San Nicolas, spending most of his time, he admits, around his grandfather’s small establishment, The Fontein Rum Shop. His grandfather came from Hong Kong to Aruba to work in the Lago Refinery, and his grandmother followed soon after Ed’s father, Kong Ming, to escape the Second World War. Ed’s father eventually opened his own grocery store, the Kong Ming Market, which would pay for Ed’s education at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he did his undergraduate studies.

From WPI, Ed went to acquire his Masters and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Yale University. His specialty was robotics, always with an eye to working in the space program. He earned his PhD with a scholarship provided by Philips Labs and NASA. In 1990 his doctorate dissertation was witnessed by a recruiter from NASA, resulting in a summer job at Kennedy Space Center, and his future was set. Though offered positions at the Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers, Ed chose to work at Goddard in Maryland, as this offered him the best chance “to put something into space. Eventually, this “something” turned out to be very historic for the island of Aruba.

When problems cropped up with a vital part of the HST that affected its cooling system, a solution needed to be found immediately. Something that would have normally taken months was produced in a few short weeks, and Dr. Cheung and his team devised the ARUBA box, or ASCS/NCS Relay Unit Breaker Assembly, which was attached to the HST in the spring of 2002, during the last successful mission of the ill-fated Columbia Space Shuttle. Dr. Cheung confesses that he devised the acronym to excite and stimulate interest in space and engineering amongst young students back on his home island. All Arubans watched with great emotion as the ARUBA Box mission was telecast worldwide.

Since then, Dr. Cheung has continued to make great contributions to the Hubble project, along with other innovations in computer and robotic science. He has garnered a number of accolades for his designs and inventions, including the Internet Pic 2000 Award, honors from publications such Nuts and Volts, Express PCB and Home Automater, plus the Ichabod Washburn Award from his Alma Mater, Worcester Polytechnic. It was a proud moment for Dr. Cheung when Astronaut John Grunsfeld pinned a Silver Snoopy Award on him for his contributions to the HST project, which he claims he never could have earned without the excellent work and cooperation of his team. Dr. Cheung was profiled in the 2007 edition of the Hubble Telescope Science Year in Review.

Dr. Cheung spent five years with NASA before joining the Hubble team, and it took time to ascend to his present position of Principle Engineer. In 2006 he received his fifteen-year award from NASA, and his responsibility has been the design and implementation hardware that keeps the telescope in orbit. It is his job to analyze and correct any anomalies. For years he was dedicated to perfecting the Wide Field Camera III, which will be installed on to the telescope during this current mission, along with a telemetry module he designed and a new science computer to replaced one that failed in September, delaying the mission, which was originally scheduled for October.

Dr. Cheung has generously shared his eyewitness accounts of the present mission, up to the launch and including daily updates on the progress. He provides fascinating information of the actual process, along with his own feelings of pride at being involved in making U.S. history, and hopes he will inspire others from his native island, particularly the youth, to strive to be the best they can be and always keep reaching for the stars!

Story by Rosalie Klein