When was the Hubble Space Telescope launched?
The Hubble Space Telescope launched on the 24th of April 1990, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as part of the STS-31 mission. It was placed into low Earth orbit at an altitude of approximately 540 km.
Questions about Hubble Space Telescope
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What was wrong with the Hubble Space Telescope mirror?
The primary mirror had been polished to the wrong shape. Its outer edge was too flat by about 2,200 nanometers, causing severe spherical aberration. The error traced back to a reflective null corrector testing device in which one lens was misaligned by 1.3 mm.
How was the Hubble mirror flaw fixed?
Servicing Mission 1, flown by Endeavour in December 1993, installed corrective optics designed with the inverse of the mirror's error. A device called COSTAR corrected light paths for most instruments, while the replacement Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 had built-in corrective relay mirrors. NASA declared the mission a complete success on the 13th of January 1994.
How much did the Hubble Space Telescope cost?
NASA spent approximately $4.7 billion in inflation-adjusted 2010 dollars through the 1990 launch. Hubble's cumulative costs, including all subsequent servicing missions but not ongoing operations, are estimated at about $11.3 billion in 2015 dollars, making it the most expensive science mission in NASA history.
Who is Nancy Grace Roman and what did she do for the Hubble Space Telescope?
Nancy Grace Roman is known as the "Mother of Hubble." Before Hubble became an official NASA project, she gave public lectures advocating its scientific value. After approval, she became the program scientist, established the steering committee that translated astronomer needs into implementation plans, and wrote congressional testimony throughout the 1970s to maintain funding.
What are the most important scientific discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope?
Hubble helped establish that the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years old and provided key evidence that the universe's expansion is accelerating, a discovery for which three scientists received Nobel Prizes. It also showed that black holes are likely present at the centers of all galaxies and captured observations of objects such as GN-z11, then the farthest confirmed galaxy, seen as it existed roughly 400 million years after the Big Bang.