In the mid-1960s, the funding proposal for developing a space observatory was formally made to Congress. In 1975, the European Space Agency joined the project, helping to defray some of the costs. Finally, in 1977, Congress granted funding for the Large Space Telescope, as it was then called. The telescope was named after pioneering deep space astronomer Edwin Hubble.

After years of delay, due in part to the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) finally launched aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-31 mission in April 1990.

After Hubble Space Telescope’s successful launch and deployment, scientists and astronomers anxiously awaited the arrival of the first images only to find that they were blurry. Scientists discovered a flaw in the main mirror of Hubble, a slight manufacturing error smaller than a fraction of a human hair.

Hubble needed repairs! Fortunately, Hubble was designed to be repaired and NASA sent the astronauts aboard STS-61 on the first servicing mission on December 2, 1993. They installed two cameras that repaired the optics and corrected Hubble’s vision. Four more repair and upgrade missions followed. In February 1997, NASA sent STS-82 to install an infrared reading instrument that would increase the telescope’s range. Astronauts also installed a spectrograph to search for black holes and increase the telescope’s resolution. In December 1999, STS-103 went back to HST to make some upgrades and stabilize its orbit. In 2002, STS-109 astronauts installed a new Advanced Camera for Survey. The final service mission, STS-125 in May 2009, increased Hubble’s view of different light spectrums. This was the last service mission planned for Hubble and was meant to increase Hubble’s lifespan as much as possible.

Dr. Steven Hawley—Kansas Astronaut, Astronomer, and Flying Telescope Repairman!

Kansas native Dr. Steven Hawley is an astronaut with a wide and varied list of space travel accomplishments. He was a mission specialist on the maiden flight of Space Shuttle Discovery, STS 41-D in late August and early September 1984. In April of 1990 - also on Discovery - Hawley and the Shuttle crew of STS-31 deployed the long-awaited Hubble Space Telescope.

Hawley was back onboard Discovery in February of 1997 to capture and re-deploy the HST which had been repaired and upgraded to enhance its capabilities. Dr. Hawley operated the Canadarm (Shuttle Remote Manipulator System), the 50-foot robot arm, to retrieve and re-deploy the Hubble following its repairs and upgrades. During this time, he also took part in five space walks to install new sensory equipment on the Hubble and place patches over degraded insulation.

The space telescope was then re-deployed and boosted to a higher orbit. On the Shuttle Columbia in 1999, Hawley was Flight Engineer involved in the successful deployment of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. On the same mission he operated a second telescope on board to make ultraviolet observations of a number of solar system objects.

Dr. Hawley completed his teaching career and went on to become an Adjunct Professor Emeritus at the University of Kansas. In addition to his many professional accomplishments, he has devoted much time and energy in support of the Cosmosphere’s mission.

The Hubble that launched in 1990 is not the same Hubble that is floating above Earth right now; the genius of the Hubble Space Telescope’s design was that it remained within reach of astronauts and could be serviced and upgraded as necessary. Hubble views our universe in a number of ways including in the ultraviolet and near-infrared spectrum. In its 30-plus years, Hubble has given us new views of our universe and helped answer questions that we didn’t even know we had about our galaxy and beyond!

Hubble showed us the damage a comet caused after colliding with Jupiter and what impact comets might have on planets. It studied and provided evidence of the presence of dark matter and revealed whole new planetary systems. Hubble observed some of the earliest and oldest objects in our galaxy. Within some of the galaxies, Hubble discovered and confirmed the existence of black holes.

Observations obtained from Hubble have helped astronomers to estimate the age of our universe more accurately to 13.82 billion years.

The Hubble Space Telescope has produced some of the most iconic and breathtaking images of the far reaches of space. Its first somewhat blurry image of space, referred to as “first light,” was of the Star Cluster NGC 3532 taken May 20, 1990, with the Wide Field/Planetary Camera. It was a vast improvement over ground-based telescopes available at the time. Then on May 17, 1991, Hubble delivered an immensely detailed image of Jupiter that provided invaluable data about Jupiter’s atmosphere and weather conditions.

After the correction to the spherical aberration on the surface of HST’s mirror, Hubble began taking even more remarkable images with never-seen-before clarity and detail. On April 1, 1995, Hubble photographed the “Pillars of Creation,” in the Eagle Nebula (M16), containing millions of newborn stars emerging from interstellar gases. As a follow-up, the HST took the first “Deep Field” image, compiled over ten days during December 1995. The Deep Field image provided a glimpse of thousands of galaxies representing the Universe near its beginning. Imaged in 2001, the “Horsehead Nebula” image delighted the public with this nebula of billowing clouds of gas and dust in the shape of a seahorse head. Hubble imaged the most distant star ever discovered, Earendel, in 2022. From the telescope’s deployment in 1990 through 2023, Hubble has made more than 1,500,000 observations.

NASA has estimated that because of past servicing missions the Hubble Space Telescope may function into the late 2020s and beyond. Although the HST advances into its twilight years and no further servicing or repair missions will occur, the HST is not yet done discovering new secrets of the Universe. The HST will work concurrently with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to locate and investigate planets around other stars and study many other astronomical objects. While the HST works in the visible and ultraviolet wavelengths, the JWST works in the infrared. The Hubble will continue to find interesting sections of space and the JWST will then be able to target extremely distant galaxies and phenomena within those sections.

The gyroscopes and other parts on the HST will continue to fail and the telescope will at some point no longer function or communicate with crews on Earth. The HST is gradually decreasing in altitude and will eventually be assisted out of orbit into a controlled, safe reentry or be nudged to a much higher orbit. When Hubble becomes non-functional, the scientific community will lose the capability to see into the visible and UV wavelengths of space, leaving a major gap in scientific resources. However, scientists will continue to mine the Hubble Legacy Archive for data for years to come using new technologies not available in Hubble’s lifetime. The Hubble Space Telescope will leave a legacy of data – and iconic images – for future generations of astronomers long after it has ceased to operate.