First Hubble servicing mission (STS-61)
Primera misión de reparación del Hubble (STS-61)
- Date
- 2-13 de diciembre de 1993 · confidence high
- Place
- Kennedy Space Center, Florida, United States
- Credited to
- NASA (Space Shuttle Endeavour crew)
- Field
- Movement
What was discovered
Seven astronauts installed the COSTAR corrective optics and a new camera on Hubble in five spacewalks, to compensate for a curvature error in the primary mirror. It turned a failure into the most productive telescope in history.
The spherical aberration (about 2 micrometres in the mirror) was detected weeks after the 1990 launch. The 2009 mission (STS-125) was the last servicing flight.
What it led to
- the Hubble Deep Field images (1995)
- four further servicing missions (1997-2009)
- proof that observatories can be repaired and upgraded in orbit