Over thirty years,
the Hubble Space Telescope has transformed astronomy.
It’s shown us images from the dawn of time
13 billion years ago
and revealed an evolving universe that’s not only expanding
but that expansion is accelerating.
Hubble has witnessed the birth and death of stars
and supermassive black holes at the heart of galaxies.
But more than that
Hubble has influenced our culture, art and music
from posters and screensavers
to t-shirts and rock albums,
its colourful landscapes have given us a new perspective on the cosmos.
The dream of a telescope above the distorting effects of the atmosphere,
goes back to the dawn of the space age.
A joint mission between NASA and ESA,
the space telescope was developed in the 1980s.
It was named after Edwin Hubble,
who discovered the Universe was expanding.
The size of an articulated lorry,
Hubble was fitted with a two and a half metre wide mirror.
The European contribution included the Faint Object Camera
and the solar arrays
the telescope’s power supply
designed to unfurl in space.
Hubble left the Earth on April 24th 1990.
The next day, the crew used the shuttle’s robotic arm
to deploy the telescope and release it into orbit
But, within weeks, it was apparent that something was badly wrong
the mirror had been polished slightly too flat.
At a sombre press conference,
Hubble’s programme manager revealed the news
There’s a severe spherical aberration in the system optics
Fortunately, Hubble had always been designed to be serviced
This ability to service the telescope through human care
will extend its lifespan for up to 20 years.
On December 4th 1993,
ESA astronaut Claude Nicollier
used space shuttle endeavour’s robotic arm to capture the telescope in orbit.
Houston, Endevor has a firm handshake with Mr Hubble’s telescope
It was one of the most ambitious missions ever
Over 11 days,
the Shuttle crew carried out five back-to-back spacewalks.
It included fitting an instrument to correct the telescope’s optics
and replacing the solar arrays.
The mission would set the tone for future servicing expeditions
the last in 2009.
Thanks to these upgrades,
today Hubble is in better shape than ever.
Mission controllers hope it will last at least another 10 years,
continuing its mission of discovery.
At the last count,
scientists have published more than 17,000 papers based on Hubble data.
But perhaps more significantly,
thanks to its amazing images,
Hubble has given us a new sense of our place in the vast cosmos.