32. The Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble space telescope is a telescope in space. Yes, in space. It is a remarkable telescope and if we didn't have it we couldn't have found the pillars of creation and other nebula like:

1. crab nebula

2. horse nebula

3. eagle nebula

make sure you check out my Video on the hubble here!

Back in 1990, Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS 31 lifted off the ground and into low Earth orbit. Out there, the crew launched the Hubble space telescope from the payload bay with the help of the Canadarm, into deep dark space. Five years later, or in 1995 the pillars of creation were photographed by this Telescope.

This space shuttle mission had seven people on it. It was a really important mission and had to be launched by astronauts who had steady hands.

Video by nasa imagery Pixabay

Video by nasa imagery Pixabay

The Hubble space telescope is named after Professor Edwin Hubble. Hubble is not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest space telescope ever built to go into space. The biggest telescope anywhere (this one's on Earth) is on the Hawaiian islands, and that is REALLY big!

Five space shuttle missions were done specifically for the Hubble space telescope to be fixed or improved or to change systems on the Hubble. The fifth mission was cancelled because of the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003; but, they finally went for go in the 5th mission in 2009. Sadly, this powerful and iconic telescope is going to be replaced by an even powerful and newer and improved telescope. It is called the James Webb Telescope (JWST). The next blog is going to be on the JWST. The JWST is going to be launched next month in December 2021 to celebrate the end of COVID-19.

The Hubble is a very powerful telescope, and it took very long to make. It was an engineering challenge. It needed to survive the sun's light source. But, it also needed to survive Earth's enormous shadow and cold front as well. These problems were solved sooner or later and they launched it up to space and it wasn't destroyed.

The first servicing mission was in 1993, 10 years before the Columbia disaster. This was before they realized that there was a mirror problem on the Hubble. The mirrors on the Hubble were not made properly. When they realized the mirror problem they launched the second mission. If they didn't fix it, NASA would of have to abandon the telescope and let it get destroyed by the rays of the sun and Earth's shadow. Mostly by the sun's rays.

The Hubble Space Telescope is the size of a large school bus. it is 32 metres long. it's solar panels are 24 feet long each. The Cassini probe was the size of a normal school bus. It orbited Saturn before it crashed. Sounds like a topic for another blog...

image from wikipedia.org

Hubble weighs 11113.013 kilograms or, 24,500 pounds. That is so heavy! If you tried to lift

it on Earth, you would need a crane. It definitely would not be allowed in your hand luggage.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Hubble space telescope rotates while it orbits the earth. Every 15 minutes, the Hubble Space Telescope rotates a full 90 degrees!

Make sure you at least check out my youtube channel and press the like button on this blog. This is the longest blog I have done so far. Next week, I am going to talk about the James Webb Telescope.

Until next time, Give me Space!!!

Henry