5 ms·

I was 9 years old when Hubble was launched, today I am 40 years old, so it has been around for all of my adult life and then some. Also, it has provided lots a

by krylon 5y ago

I was 9 years old when Hubble was launched, today I am 40 years old, so it has been around for all of my adult life and then some. Also, it has provided lots and lots and lots of beautiful pictures that are stunning to look at even for people who otherwise do not care about astronomy at all. I think it's fair to say that no other project/mission/device since the Moon landing had a bigger impact in making astronomy "cool". The Hubble Deep Field pictures alone are breath-taking, and they may very well have had as much of an impact on our current model of the universe as Hubble's original discovery of an expanding universe, at least from the perspective of a non-scientist. As far as I can recall, Hubble was supposed to go down in flames quite a few years ago, but it just kept working, and no equivalent replacement was available. James Webb Space Telescope is not exactly a replacement, as it is an infrared telescope. It will be quite interesting to see how long they can keep Hubble working. It had a rough start, but the fact that after some initial corrections, it has lasted way longer than it was supposed to speaks of the quality of engineering that created it.

ckosidows 5y ago
Was Hubble big news when it launched? Asking because I'm 28 and was not alive on 1990.
- giantrobot 5y ago
  Hubble or the "Space Telescope" was one of the Space Shuttle's major proposed missions and a major project at NASA in the 80s. Any books or magazine articles about the Shuttle often mentioned the then unnamed Space Telescope. As mentioned in other replies it was originally lambasted after launch for its flawed optics. The first servicing mission which fixed those problems got a lot of press attention, far more than its launch.
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  Yes, although it had well-known glitches after launch as well.
- krylon 5y ago
  I don't recall the launch as such, but in my memory, it was pretty popular throughout the 1990s. I don't have any first hand memories of the broken optics and the mission to put "glasses" on it, so I think it must have taken a while to become a household name, at least in Europe. Once the optics were corrected, though, it became very big. I once heard an astronomer say that there is pretty much no field in astronomy that did not benefit in some way from Hubble. And for lay people like me, lots of stunning pictures. :)
- op00to 5y ago
  Huge. We watched the launch and the repairs in school.

by krylon 5y ago

ckosidows 5y ago

Was Hubble big news when it launched? Asking because I'm 28 and was not alive on 1990.

giantrobot 5y ago
Hubble or the "Space Telescope" was one of the Space Shuttle's major proposed missions and a major project at NASA in the 80s. Any books or magazine articles about the Shuttle often mentioned the then unnamed Space Telescope. As mentioned in other replies it was originally lambasted after launch for its flawed optics. The first servicing mission which fixed those problems got a lot of press attention, far more than its launch.
mixmastamyk 5y ago
Yes, although it had well-known glitches after launch as well.
krylon 5y ago
I don't recall the launch as such, but in my memory, it was pretty popular throughout the 1990s. I don't have any first hand memories of the broken optics and the mission to put "glasses" on it, so I think it must have taken a while to become a household name, at least in Europe. Once the optics were corrected, though, it became very big. I once heard an astronomer say that there is pretty much no field in astronomy that did not benefit in some way from Hubble. And for lay people like me, lots of stunning pictures. :)
op00to 5y ago
Huge. We watched the launch and the repairs in school.