After the launch of the famous Hubble Space Telescope aboard the space shuttle Discovery (STS-31) on April 24th of 1990, the first images from it immediately revealed some flaws. The resulting images weren't as sharp as expected with test images of point sources coming back spread over more than one arcsecond, compared to 0.1 arcseconds expected. This was due to the main mirror having been polished to the wrong shape, too flat by 1/450th of a millimeter, a flaw that was not detected before launch due to one of the testing devices being incorrectly assembled. This led to many criticizing NASA while others feared that the project would be abandoned sooner than expected. For the time being, the telescope continued gathering data of less demanding targets.
However, the project was planned to be continuously serviced, fixing flaws and adding improvements. The first service mission, conducted by the space shuttle Endevour STS-61 launched on December 2nd of 1993 would install or replace several additional instruments and most importantly, the COSTAR corrective optics package which added extra mirrors to correct the aberration. The mission was a declared a complete success, with first images showing sharper images. Over 4 more service missions, old components were replaced and improvements installed, further improving the telescope which went on to produce some of the most famous images of space such as the Pillars of Creation as seen in bottom left of the meme and the telescope itself being among the most famous space crafts ever. The telescope is still in service with no current plans for mission termination though with no further service missions possible, the craft's orbit is predicted to slowly decay over time, reentering earth's atmosphere sometime in the 2030s assuming no further missions to service or even recover the telescope.
It's possible in theory and some have mentioned possibly doing so, but now that the shuttle program is over, there are no spacecraft that can bring up enough cargo and personell to do any meaningful work on it. I guess space X's starship is a good candidate so maybe they might do a service mission with that for some of the early manned tests if they actually get its reliability to anything close to human rated as opposed to the current near 50% failure rate.
Alright I think this playthrough I'll play a big heavy armor wearing two han.... and I fucking made a stealth archer again! HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING!?
After the launch of the famous Hubble Space Telescope aboard the space shuttle Discovery (STS-31) on April 24th of 1990, the first images from it immediately revealed some flaws. The resulting images weren't as sharp as expected with test images of point sources coming back spread over more than one arcsecond, compared to 0.1 arcseconds expected. This was due to the main mirror having been polished to the wrong shape, too flat by 1/450th of a millimeter, a flaw that was not detected before launch due to one of the testing devices being incorrectly assembled. This led to many criticizing NASA while others feared that the project would be abandoned sooner than expected. For the time being, the telescope continued gathering data of less demanding targets.
However, the project was planned to be continuously serviced, fixing flaws and adding improvements. The first service mission, conducted by the space shuttle Endevour STS-61 launched on December 2nd of 1993 would install or replace several additional instruments and most importantly, the COSTAR corrective optics package which added extra mirrors to correct the aberration. The mission was a declared a complete success, with first images showing sharper images. Over 4 more service missions, old components were replaced and improvements installed, further improving the telescope which went on to produce some of the most famous images of space such as the Pillars of Creation as seen in bottom left of the meme and the telescope itself being among the most famous space crafts ever. The telescope is still in service with no current plans for mission termination though with no further service missions possible, the craft's orbit is predicted to slowly decay over time, reentering earth's atmosphere sometime in the 2030s assuming no further missions to service or even recover the telescope.
why are no further serviced missions possible?
It's possible in theory and some have mentioned possibly doing so, but now that the shuttle program is over, there are no spacecraft that can bring up enough cargo and personell to do any meaningful work on it. I guess space X's starship is a good candidate so maybe they might do a service mission with that for some of the early manned tests if they actually get its reliability to anything close to human rated as opposed to the current near 50% failure rate.
How are these service missions done? Are people sent there with the shuttle and operate on the thing while in space?
Exactly. The shuttle would fly to Hubble, grab onto it using it's arm, and then the astronauts would spacewalk to do the repairs.
There were 5 missions to Hubble. The last was STS-125.
miles better than giving the money to LockMart and Friends
(well they produce cool shit also, from one angle but still)
It's not rocket science though. It's optics.
At least we got some cool photos of two space shuttles on launch pads out of that fuck up.
An astronomeme in r/HistoryMemes? Lets goooo
Its litterally one of the most usefull single devices we have ever built
Who the fuck says this?
Alright I think this playthrough I'll play a big heavy armor wearing two han.... and I fucking made a stealth archer again! HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING!?