QUESTION:
How long did it take to learn to drive the Hubble?

ANSWER from Lynn Foster Bassford on June 10th,1996:
Flight Controllers do not drive Hubble in the same way that you will
drive a car.  HST is a low earth orbit satellite constantly moving over
different areas of the ground.  We do not have engines on board to
control this.  The laws of Physics do it for us.
We do drive Hubble in the sense that we control Hubble by sending
commands and computer loads to the spacecraft.  These commands and loads
will direct Hubble to process information, point in a certain direction, 
and perform observations.

A Flight Controller's initial training period is 3 to 6 months depending 
on the trainee's previous experience/education and which subsystem the
person is training on.  Next step is to take certification test(s) on
that subsystem.  If the trainee passes, he/she is assigned to a realtime 
Flight Operations crew.  Passing the test means that the person has 
acquired enough skills to do the basics functions of their job.  Just 
like most things in life, learning is a constant process. It could take 
many years to truly learn everything about that subsytem and the 
spacecraft.  Plus, our System Engineers & Management are always working 
hard to try and improve Hubble.  This means that there is always 
something new for us to learn.