Giving Hubble a Second Chance
Hubble reached orbit with a flawed mirror. Three years later, astronauts carried corrective instruments to the telescope and turned a design failure into a repairable problem.
Hubble had been sent above Earth’s atmosphere to deliver a sharper view of the universe. After its 1990 launch, the early images exposed a problem in the shape of its primary mirror. The observatory could still do useful work, but it could not deliver the performance expected of it. The failure was especially painful because the telescope had already reached the place where engineers on the ground could no longer touch it.
There was, however, a way back to the hardware. Hubble had been designed for servicing by astronauts, with equipment that could be replaced in orbit. That decision did not make a repair easy or guarantee its success. It meant that the observatory was not limited forever to the condition in which it had left Earth. Engineers could design a response and send people to install it.
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Image: NASA