HST

USA

International Sat. n°:

USA satellite n°:

Hubble Space Telescope, named as the American astrophysician Edwin Powell Hubble

Launch data:

Designation:	20580 / 90037B
Launch date	24 Apr 1990 - 12:33:52 UT
Launch site:	MLP2, KSC LC-39B
Launch vehicle:	Shuttle STS-31
Mission:	Government: Astrophysics/Planetary Science Scientific: astronomy
Intermediate LEO Earth orbit:
Perigee / Apogee	611 x 620 km
Eccentricity	6.44E-04
Inclination	28.4 deg
Period	97.01 min

10 Nov 1997 The Hubble Space Telescope hovers at the boundary of Earth and space in this picture, taken after Hubble's second servicing mission in 1997.

Specifications

Prime contractor	Lockheed (spacecraft) Perkin Elmer (mirror & telescope)
Operator	ESA / NASA
Mass at launch	11110 kg
Diameter	4.25 m
Height	13.1 m
Solar array	12 x 2.83 m
Stabilization	3-axis
DC power	2400 W
Design lifetime	10 yrs - still active

Payload

Primary mirror diameter	2.4 m
Primary mirror mass	800 kg
Frequency bands	UV, visible and near IR
Resolution	0.1 arcsecs
Pointing stability	0.007 arcsecs

Wide-Field Planetary Camera, Faint Object Camera (ESA), Faint Object Spectrograph, High Resolution Spectrograph, High Speed Photometer
Data acquisition via TDRS
Telemetry: 2287.5 MHz (500 bps, 4 kbps, 32 kbps)
Command: 2106 MHz (1/0.125 kbps)
Data: 2255.5 MHz (1024 kbps)

Mission details:

STS-31 Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is grappled by RMS - Credit: NASA.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was the first of the Great Observatories launched, and is exploring our universe in the visible, ultraviolet, near-infrared regions of our electromagnetic spectrum. It was designed by Lynan Spitzer and proposed to NASA in the early 60ies. It is maintained by the Shuttle: first servicing mission: STS 61.
The WFPC 2 replaced the original camera on 1st servicing mission and Costar replaced the High Speed Photometer.
The second mission occured in Feb 1997 with STS 82.
On the second servicing mission, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph replaced both GHRS (the Goddard High Res Spectrograph) and FOS (the Faint Object Spectrograph). NICMOS, the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer was added to overs the 0.8 to 2.5 micron spectral range.
In Feb 1999 it is announced that 3 of the 6 gyroscopes failed and that an advanced service mission is needed to replace them. On 13 Nov 1999 the satellite was placed in safe-mode after loosing the 4th gyroscope.
The third was in Dec 1999 with: STS 103 Hubble received new gyroscopes, a new solid state recorder, an S-band transmitter, a new onboard computer (486), and several spare components (total new equipment worth $70 million).
During Sep 2008, the primary science data formatter control unit on HST failed, temporarily halting science operations. This has delayed the STS-125 servicing mission.

HST Servicing Missions:

1993-075A     1993 Dec  2-13      Endeavour (STS- 61/SM-1)
1997-004A     1997 Feb 11-21      Discovery (STS- 82/SM-2)
1999-069A     1999 Dec 20-28      Discovery (STS-103/SM-3A)
2002-010A     2002 Mar  1-12      Columbia  (STS-109/SM-3B)
2009-025A     2009 May 11-24      Atlantis (STS-125)

Ref: #6r, #7(JR601), #15, #225(09.05), #226 - update: 11.08.09