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In 1962, the USA's National
Academy of Sciences recommends building a large space telescope.
In 1977,
Congress votes
to fund the project and construction of Hubble Space Telescope
begins.
Construction
of Hubble Space Telescope was completed
in 1985. The
launch of Hubble was delayed due to the 1986 Space
Shuttle
Challenger disaster.
Hubble was
launched on the space shuttle on
April 25, 1990.
It was named after
Edwin Hubble.
Within days Hubble was
sending back pictures that were out of focus. NASA
discovered a major flaw in the giant mirror. The giant mirror
was too flat on one edge by 1 / 50th of the width of
a single human hair.
In
December, 1993, the Space Shuttle Endeavor captured and modified
the Hubble Space Telescope by adding a
camera to correct problems with the telescope's primary mirror.
The second
servicing mission was in february 1997. Astronauts
exchanged
some of Hubble's instruments and added
new blankets to keep Hubble
warm.
On October 1997,
NASA
decided to extend Hubble's operations from 2005 to 2010.
On November
13, 1999, a
fourth gyroscope on Hubble fails. The
Hubble shuts down to await a repair mission since it can
no longer aim.
Space Shuttle mission repairs the Hubble and upgrades it.
Great
Achievements of Hubble
June 1994: NASA releases Orion Nebula images that confirm the
births of planets around newborn stars.
November 1995: NASA releases Eagle Nebula images showing
where stars are born.
January 1996: NASA releases the "Deep Field" images
in which Hubble peers back in time more than 10 billion years.
Reveals at least 1,500 galaxies at various stages of
development.
February 2001 :
New
images "ant nebula".
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