Hubble launched
APR 24, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.030951
On this day in 1990 NASA’s space shuttle Discovery took off from Kennedy Space Center to carry the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. The launch was originally planned for October 1986 but the Challenger disaster of January that year grounded the shuttle fleet for two years. Besides launching the telescope, shuttles also carried out four serving missions. The first, in December 1993, corrected the telescope’s flawed optics. The most recent, in May 2009, swapped out instruments and replaced the guidance sensor, six gyroscopes and two batteries. Hubble is still operating and could last until 2020.
Date in History: 24 April 1990
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
