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THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
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HUBBLE INTRODUCTION
HUBBLE TIMELINE
HUBBLE's BEGINNINGS
HISTORICAL TIMELINE
Servicing Mission 4 (SM4)

On October 31, 2006, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announced a fifth servicing mission (SM4) to the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008.   
+ Read Press Release

SM4 tasks include:

Conceptual Mission Image


Servicing Mission 3B (SM3B)

March 1, 2002: (STS-109). LaunchShuttle Columbia.
Installation of ACS.
Installation of NCS.
Replace SA2 with SA3 (solar arrays).
 
ACS Lab

Servicing Mission 3A (SM3A)

December 19, 1999: (STS-103) Launch of Shuttle Discovery.
Replacement of RSU (Rate Sensing Units containing gyroscopes).
Installation of new computer.
General maintenance.
   
November 13, 1999: Hubble placed in safe mode after the failure of a fourth gyroscope.
 
Working on Hubble

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

Servicing Mission 2 (SM2)

February 11, 1997: (STS-82)Launch of Shuttle Discovery.
STIS replaced FOS.
NICMOS replaced GHRS.
 
Refurbishing Hubble

Servicing Mission 1 (SM1)

December 2, 1993: (STS-61) Launch of Shuttle Endeavour
COSTAR corrective optics installed, replacing HSP.
WFPC2 replaced WFPC.
 
Inserting COSTAR

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Deployed

April 24, 1990: (STS-31) Launch of Shuttle Discovery.
April 25, 1990: Hubble Space Telescope deployed into orbit.
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!

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

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

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.  

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

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



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