More than three decades later, the iconic scope is still going strong.
still blocked or distorted much of the light for observers on the ground. Larger telescopes were, and still are, placed atop mountains, where the thinner atmosphere at higher elevations allows clearer pictures.
— Hubble orbits about 340 miles above Earth, on a path inclined 28.5 degrees to the equator. Its average speed is 17,000 mph , and it takes 95 minutes to complete one orbit. — Astronauts have serviced Hubble five times, on missions that launched in December 1993, February 1997, December 1999, February 2002 and May 2009.
Hubble experienced equipment issues right off the bat. For example, the telescope's first images came back so blurry that they were close to useless scientifically. It turned out that Hubble's 7.9-foot-wide main mirror had a defect — a spherical aberration caused by a manufacturing error. The flaw was minute, at just 1/50th the thickness of a sheet of paper, but that was big enough to cause major imaging problems.
Spacewalking astronauts repaired, maintained and upgraded Hubble on four additional servicing missions, which took place in February 1997, December 1999, March 2002 and May 2009.
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