Watch BBC Horizon – Fixing Hubbles Vision (1994) Documentary Online


Servicing Mission 1, December 1993: The primary goal of this Mission was to restore Hubble’s vision. Because Hubble’s primary mirror was incorrectly shaped, the telescope could not focus all the light from an object to a single sharp point. Instead, it saw a fuzzy halo around objects it observed.

Astronauts on the space shuttle Endeavor (STS-61) spent five days tuning it up. They installed two new devices—the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement – to compensate for the primary mirror’s incorrect shape. Astronauts also installed new solar arrays, to reduce the “jitter” caused by excessive flexing of the solar panels during the telescope’s orbital transition from cold darkness into warm daylight, and new gyroscopes to help point and track the telescope, along with fuse plugs and electronic units.

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