The Invisible Universe Revealed

Today on Far Future Horizons we present another exciting episode of the award-winning PBS science documentary series NOVA about the amazing discoveries of our invisible universe made by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Fixing Hubble's Vision

Astronauts work on Hubble in Endeavour's payload bay; Story Musgrave, anchored on the end of the Canadarm, prepares to be elevated to the top of the HST to install protective covers on the magnetometers.

Today on Far Future Horizons we present the BBC Horizon documentary “Hubble Vision”.

Astronauts included in the STS-61 crew portrait include (standing in rear left to right) Richard O. Covey, commander; and mission specialists Jeffrey A. Hoffman, and Thomas D. Akers. Seated left to right are Kenneth D. Bowersox, pilot; Kathryn C. Thornton, mission specialist; F. Story Musgrave, payload commander; and Claude Nicollier, mission specialist. Launched aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor on December 2, 1993 at 4:27:00 am (EST), the STS-61 mission was the first Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing mission, and the last mission of 1993.

Hubble was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24^th, 1990.

When the telescope achieved first light, it was immediately obvious that there was a serious problem with the optics and that the primary mirror had been ground to the wrong shape. The design of the Hubble Space telescope had always incorporated servicing missions, and astronomers immediately began to seek potential solutions to the problem that could be applied at the first servicing mission, scheduled for 1993.