The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was named in honor Edwin Hubble, who, in the 1920s, became the first person to identify galaxies outside of our own Milky Way. Using the 100-inch Hooker Telescope atop Mt. Wilson in Pasadena, California, his findings provided the foundation for the Big Bang Theory and our current understanding of the expanding Universe. Edwin Hubble was named one of Time magazine's Most Influential People of the 20th century.
The HST was placed in orbit by the crew of Shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990 and was immediately in trouble due to a poorly-ground mirror. It drifted for three years while scientists and engineers struggled to understand the imaging problem. Finally in December 1993, the crew of Shuttle Endeavour inserted what was, in essence, a contact lens to help the telescope focus.
Since that time, Hubble has orbited the Earth nearly 100,000 times covering roughly 2.3 billion miles. Almost 4,000 astronomers the world over have used Hubble to examine the depths of our Universe, taking over 700,000 images of more than 22,000 astronomical treasures.
Since it began operations back in 1993, Hubble has been in need of basic repairs. Gyroscopes need to be replaced and some of its batteries are failing. NASA has been leery of sending a Shuttle for a repair mission because the telescope's orbit is different than that of the International Space Station. If the astronauts run into problems while working on Hubble, there is no "safe haven" for them to turn to. But, in October 2006, NASA announced plans for a repair mission to Hubble, scheduled for Spring of 2008. After that, the Shuttle fleet is slated to be retired in 2010.
For more information:
- http://Hubblesite.org/
- http://Hubble.nasa.gov/index.php
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope
Author(s): Deejr Richez (unknown date prior to 2007 December 31)
