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History Of The Hubble Space Telescope

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The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, and it still remains operational. It was launched by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), and ESA (European Space Agency). We chose this as a topic because of the amazing pictures it has captured and all of the galaxies, stars, and nebulas it has discovered. There are many things that go into operating the HST. To transmit the data to the Space Telescope Institute in Baltimore, Maryland it has to travel a long ways. After the telescope takes the picture, the data gets transmitted to the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. Then the data travels down to the Ground Station in New Mexico. Then it goes across the U.S.A. to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Finally, it gets sent over to the Space Telescope Science Institute a few miles away. In the Space Telescope Science Institute they have a simulation of the telescope called the Vehicle Electrical System Test (VEST). They use the VEST to troubleshoot problems, verify updates to the software, and verify operations to the telescope. …show more content…
They make repairs, add new parts, and update it’s software. One of these missions was in December of 1993. Between from the 2nd to the 13th astronauts installed new instruments to improve the telescope. They also fixed a flaw in the telescope’s main mirror because the pictures up until that point were a bit fuzzier than expected. From February 11th to the 21st they installed new instruments to extend the wavelength to see the distant reaches of the universe. One of the more recent missions was from May 11th to the 24th in 2009. This was the first on-orbit repairs. It was a 12 day mission and 5 spacewalks were performed. In May of 2011 they installed automated controls so they don’t have to pilot it at all

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