The Hubble Space Telescope

 The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was placed in orbit on April 1990 by the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-31). It was carried in the Shuttle's cargo bay! The space based observatory allows astronomers a better view of the universe. The telescope is the size of a school bus.

NASA named the world's first space-based optical telescope after American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble (1889?953). Hubble confirmed an expanding universe, which provided the foundation for the Big Bang theory.

Hubble Space Telescope Facts

Manufacturer: Lockheed

Size13.3 m long, 4.3 m diameter

Length: 43.5 ft (13.2 m)

Weight: 24,500 lb (11,110 kg)

4th Servicing Mission: December 2001

Did you know?

To track the Hubble telescope try the following HST links:

• http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/Spacecraft.html:
  
  

• http://www.stsci.edu/hst/:

The successor to Hubble will be The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), which is being designed right now and may be launched as early as 2008.

Video:
The Space Shuttle and the Hubble Telescope from Amazon.com

Books: 
Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe by Mark Voit from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca

Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe by Robin Kerrod from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca

Origins: Our Place in Hubble's Universe by John R. Gribbin, Simon Goodwin from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca

• Read about the Hubble Space Telescope History.