The Hubble Space Telescope turns 16 on April 24. It was launched in 1990 aboard Shuttle mission STS-31, using the Discovery orbiter. It was to have gone up in 1986 but was delayed by the Challenger explosion. At first Hubble seemed like yet another NASA boondoggle when it was discovered that the telescope's main mirror was flawed. But a mission to install compensating equipment in 1993 unleashed the full potential of the space telescope, and it's been generating amazing images and important discoveries on an almost daily basis since then.
Of course, one can no longer speak of "the" space telescope. Hubble is now one of several instruments in orbit. There's also the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the Spitzer infrared telescope.
Hubble is starting to show its age. Its gyroscopes are failing, and its orbit is due to start decaying circa 2010. Right now NASA has no plans to send a repair mission. Shuttle flights are scarce and most are already booked up, and the agency wants to keep its manned missions in orbits which can rendezvous with the International Space Station in case of emergency (to prevent another Columbia disaster). So it seems likely that we'll be getting Hubble images for only a couple more years before it finally goes dark.
There is a replacement in the works. The James Webb space telescope is due to launch in 2013 or thereabouts. It's planned to be a colossal 6.5-meter infrared scope parked far off at the L-2 Sun-Earth Lagrange point. Whether or not it actually gets funded, built, and launched remains to be seen.
Lockheed built the Hubble, and also manufactures spy satellites for the formerly ultra-secret National Reconnaissance Office. The joke is that the Hubble is the biggest telescope in orbit pointing up rather than down.
The other joke is that if the guys designing the Hubble had been allowed to talk to the guys across the hall behind the security doors, they never would have made the mistake with the mirror design.
Posted by: Paul Tomblin | April 24, 2006 at 09:38 AM
As I understand it, the problem with the mirror was a manufacturing error rather than a design problem. The mirror manufacturer (Perkins-Elmer) failed to do proper quality-assurance checking because they were apparently getting out of the business anyway. Which suggests that the spy-satellite makers buy their mirrors from someone else.
Cambias
Posted by: Cambias | April 24, 2006 at 01:16 PM