HST

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.

Description:

• The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was the first and flagship mission of NASA′s Great Observatories program. Designed to complement the wavelength capabilities of the other spacecraft in the program (CGRO, AXAF, and SIRTF), HST was a 2.4 m, f/24 Ritchey-Chretien telescope capable of performing observations in the visible, near-ultraviolet, and near-infrared (1150 A to 1 mm)
• 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)
• The Hubble Space Telescope is in safemode, following failure of one of its gyros on Oct 5, 2018. A backup gyro failed to come online; the team are working the problem. If they can′t get it working HST will spend the rest of its career observing in ′one-gyro′ mode; this adds some operational difficulties and will make some special kinds of observation (especially solar system objects) problematic, but won′t impact most of its science program.

External links:

• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time satellite tracking