 |
 |
Who Does What?
NASA chose Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as
the lead NASA field center for the design, development, and construction
of the renamed Space Telescope (ST). Marshall delegated Perkin-Elmer
Corporation (now, Hughes Danbury Optical Systems) the task of developing
the Optical Telescope Assembly and the Fine Guidance Sensors. Lockheed
Missiles and Space Company (now, Lockheed Martin) was selected by
Marshall to build the cylindrical casing and the internal support
systems (the Support Systems Module) and assembling the telescope
together.
NASA chose Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, to
be the lead in scientific instrument design and ground control for
the space observatory. Scientists were organized into "Instrument
Definition Teams" which would translate scientific aims into scientific
devices and incorporate them into the space telescope housing. After
an announcement was made to the astronomy community, proposals were
received and judged, and five devices were selected as the initial
instruments that would be aboard the Space Telescope: the Faint Object
Camera, the Wide Field/Planetary Camera, the Faint Object Spectrograph,
the High Resolution Spectrograph, and the High Speed Photometer.
The Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida supplied Space Shuttle support. In all, dozens of
contractors, a handful of universities, and several NASA centers,
spanning 21 states and 12 other countries worldwide, made the dream
of a telescope above the clouds and in space a reality.
In 1983, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) was established
at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The staff
of STScI evaluated proposals for telescope time and managed the resulting
telescope observations. A number of delays stemming from underestimating
the costs and engineering requirements of the state-of-the-art telescope
caused the launch date to be moved from December 1983 to the second
half of 1986. NASA reexamined interfaces, instruments, and assemblies.
The building of the Optical Telescope Assembly encountered engineering
challenges. Scientific instruments, like the Wide Field/Planetary
Camera (WF/PC), underwent redesign, removing weight and redundancy.
|
|
 |
|
Hubble is Born
In regards to the maintenance and upgrading of the space telescope,
plans were made to conduct servicing missions in orbit versus returning
the telescope to Earth and refurbishing it on the ground. It was
an innovative concept that would be even easier on a budget. In
the midst of this spirit of renovation, the Space Telescope was
renamed the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). By 1985, the telescope
was assembled and ready for launch.
However, in 1986 disaster struck. The Challenger accident forced
NASA to ground the Space Shuttle fleet for two years. However, these
were years well spent by the HST Program. Solar panels were improved
with new solar cell technology. The aft shroud was modified to make
instrument replacement during servicing easier. Computers and communication
systems were upgraded. The HST was subjected to further stress tests
in the harsh environments of liftoff and space.
Finally, on April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off
from earth with the Hubble Space Telescope nestled securely in its
bay. The following day, Hubble was released into space, ready to peer
into the vast unknown of space, offering mankind a glimpse upon distant,
exotic cosmic shores yet to be described.
|
|
| |
|
REFERENCES
Smith, Robert W., The Space Telescope: A
Study of NASA, Science, Technology and Politics, Cambridge University
Press, 1993.
Chaisson, Eric J., The Hubble Wars: Astrophysics Meets Astropolitics,
Harper Collins, 1994.
Petersen, Carolyn Collins, and Brandt, John C., Hubble Vision:
Astronomy with the Hubble Space Telescope, Cambridge University
Press, 1995.
|
|
|
Previous
