| Hubble Deployment - STS-31 - April 1990 |
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Construction of Hubble was completed in 1985 but its launch was delayed by the Challenger explosion in 1986.
+ Additional Images available at Hubble Multimedia and STS-31 image. |
| Servicing Mission 1 (SM1) - STS-61 - December 1993 |
A most important mission as it brought the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) to Hubble which contained the lenses for the instruments to overcome the mirror design flaw discovered June 25, 1990. Also, Wide Field Planetary Camera (WFPC) was replaced with WPFC2 which had built in optic correction. All subsequent instrument replacement would include the optical correction within the instrument.
+ SM1 Images avaliable at Hubble Multimedia.
+ Additional SM1 Videos available at STS-61 Video. |
| Servicing Mission 2 (SM2) - STS-82 - February 1997 |
Two new scientific instruments were installed, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera/Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), replacing two first generation instruments.
+ SM2 Images available at Hubble Multimedia and STS-82 Image.
+ Additional SM2 Videos available at STS-82 Videos. |
| Servicing Mission 3A (SM3A) - STS-103 - December 1999 |
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Due to a fourth gyroscope failure, causing Hubble to be placed in safe mode and therefore unusable until fixed, Servicing Mission 3 was split into two parts, A and B. At this point in time Hubble needed three gyroscopes for pointing. Since then improvements have been made in the pointing algorithms and as of August 2005, Hubble's functioning requires only 2 gyroscopes.
+ SM3A Images available at SM3A website image gallery, Hubble multimedia and STS-103 image.
+ Additional SM3A Animations available at SM3A website image gallery.
+ Additional SM3A Videos available at SM3A website image gallery and STS-103 video. |
| Servicing Mission 3B (SM3B) - STS-109 - March 2002 |
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On SM3B, the last of the first generation science instruments was replaced with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which quickly became the Hubble workhorse. A cooler (the NICMOS Cryogenic Cooler) was installed for the NICMOS instruments to bring it back to life after it had expended all its coolant in January 1999. A major powering improvement was the installation of new Solar Array panels (SA3) which were smaller, more resilient and more powerful than its predecessors. After completion of this mission the COSTAR instrument was no longer needed and was de-activated.
+ SM3B Images available at SM3B website image gallery, Hubble multimedia and STS-109 Images.
+ Additional SM3B Animations available at SM3B website animation.
+ Additional SM3B Videos available at SM3B website video and STS-109 video. |
