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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center

Astrophysics Science Division | Sciences and Exploration

This website is kept for archival purposes only and is no longer updated.

THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
OVERVIEW HUBBLE NEWS OPERATIONS TECHNOLOGY SERVICING MISSIONS HUBBLE MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTS

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ABOUT NASA
HUBBLE INTRODUCTION
HUBBLE TIMELINE
Acronyms & Glossary
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
2009
Servicing Mission 4 (SM4)

May 11, 2009: (STS-125). Launch of Shuttle Atlantis.
Conceptual Mission Image

2002
Servicing Mission 3B (SM3B)

March 1, 2002: (STS-109). Launch of Shuttle Columbia.  
ACS Lab

1999
Servicing Mission 3A (SM3A)

December 19, 1999: (STS-103) Launch of Shuttle Discovery.

November 13, 1999: Hubble placed in safe mode after the failure of a fourth gyroscope.
 

Working on Hubble

1998
HST Orbital Systems Test (HOST)

October 29, 1998: (STS-95) Launch of Shuttle Discovery.
  • HOST mission was flown to test new technologies for installation into Hubble during servicing missions 3A and 3B.

HOST in Shuttle Bay

1997
Servicing Mission 2 (SM2)

February 11, 1997: (STS-82) Launch of Shuttle Discovery.
  • Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) replaced Faint Object Spectrometer (FOS).
  • Near Infrared Camera/Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) replaced Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS).
  • Replacement of Fine Guidence Sensor #1 with modified spare with added capability for ground-controlled alignment corrections.
  • Addition of an Optical Control Electronics Enhancement Kit (OCE-EK)
  • Replacement of #1 Engineering Science Tape Recorders (ESTR) with digital Solid State Recorder (SSR) and replacement of #2 ESTR with a spare ESTR unit.
  • Replace #1 of 4 Reaction Wheel Assemblies (RWA), with refurbished spare.
  • Replacement of Data Interface Units (DIU) #2 with modified and upgraded spare unit.
  • Replacement of #2 Solar Array Drive Electronics (SADE) with refurbished unit.
  • Replacment of more durable covers on Magnetic Sensing System (MSS)

Refurbishing Hubble

1993
Servicing Mission 1 (SM1)

December 2, 1993: (STS-61) Launch of Shuttle Endeavour.
  • COSTAR, Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement installed, replacing High Speed Photometer (HSP).
  • WFPC 2 replaced Wide Field Planetary Camera 1 (WFPC).
  • Solar Arrays replaced with Solar Arrays 2 (SA2)
  • Replacement of #1 Solar Array Drive Electronics (SADE).
  • Replace the #2 and #3 Rate Sensor Unit (two gyros each).
  • Replacement of two Gyro Electronic Control Units which direct the RSUs.
  • Replacement of eight electrical fuses.
  • Installation of two new magnetometers.
  • Installation of Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph Redundancy (GHRS) kit.
  • Installation of two protective covers over original magnetometers.

Inserting COSTAR

1990
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Deployed

April 24, 1990: (STS-31) Launch of Shuttle Discovery.

April 25, 1990: Hubble Space Telescope deployed into orbit with first-generation scientific instruments WFPC, GHRS, FOS, FOC, and HSP.

June 25, 1990: Spherical aberration discovered in Hubble's primary mirror

COSTAR Approved: the creation of a complex packaging of five optical mirror pairs which would rectify the spherical aberration in Hubble's primary mirror.

  Hubble Deployed
Launch!

1981
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

Operations begin in Baltimore, Maryland. The STScI was built as the astronomical research center for the Hubble Space Telescope.
 
Team Effort at STScI

1977
Congress approves funding for The Hubble Space Telescope

NASA names its largest, most complex, and capable orbiting telescope in honor of Edwin Hubble.
 
Hubble and Congress

1969
The LST - Large Space Telescope

Astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer gathered the support of other astronomers for a "large orbital telescope".

In 1969, the National Academy of Sciences gave its approval for the Large Space Telescope (LST) project, and the hearings and feasibility studies continued.


1923
Conception of a space telescope

Famed rocket scientist Herman Oberth publishes an article speculating on telescopes in orbit.

Space pioneer Hermann Oberth was considered by many to be the most famous mentor of the late Dr. Wernher von Braun, the first director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
 
Herman Oberth

1918
Edwin Hubble and the Hooker Telescope

2.5-meter (100-inch) Hooker Telescope begins operations at Mt. Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California.

With this telescope in the 1920's, astronomer Edwin Hubble measured the distances and velocities of galaxies, work which led to his discovery of the expanding Universe.

Edwin Hubble