Hubble Turns 30: How the Famous Space Telescope Went From Idea to Launch

Hermann Oberth, one of the founders of modern rocketry, is credited with first coming up with the idea of launching a telescope into space.

Space telescopes, he figured, would have a distinct advantage over ground-based telescopes which cannot pick up wavelengths of light that are directly absorbed into Earth's atmosphere. Additionally, space telescopes orbit above Earth's atmosphere, which can blur some astronomical observations.

Princeton Astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer Jr. ran with Oberth's idea.

His earth-shattering 1946 report 'Astronomical advantages of an extra-terrestrial observatory' suggested launching a telescope into Earth's orbit. "If practically feasible," Spitzer wrote, a space telescope "could revolutionize astronomical techniques and open up completely new vistas of astronomical research."

He spent the next 20 years advocating for an orbiting space telescope with which to survey the stars.

In the 1960's, NASA formed the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory program, which sent a series of small satellites into space to observe the cosmos.

OAO 1, a precursor to today's modern space telescopes launched on April 8, 1966.

The launch looked great, and it seemed like the mission would end in successful. Suddenly, just seven minutes after the small telescope separated from its rocket, the telescope's operators received readings that suggested something was wrong. OAO 1's power supply had failed.

After 20 orbits around the globe and just three days in space, NASA made the difficult decision to terminate the mission.

OAO 2 was launched on Dec. 7, 1968. It would become the first successful stellar explorer.

“OAO 2 was a learning experience,” Nancy Grace Roman, the first chief of astronomy in the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters, told the agency in 2018. “We had to learn how to point a telescope to a single object and hold it there for a half hour or so.”

The telescopes aboard OAO 2 made observations in ultraviolet light, tracking comets, galaxies and stars. The spacecraft's Celescope instrument snapped pictures of over 8,500 stars. The seven-telescope Wisconsin Experiment Package observed over 1,200 stars.

OAO 2 was officially retired in 1973.

The third and final OAO satellite, OAO 3 (Copernicus) launched on August 21, 1972 and successfully documents the depths of the universe for nine and a half years, until it was retired in February, 1981.

In 1971, NASA acting Administrator, George Low cleared a path for the agency's Large Space Telescope Science Steering Group to begin lobbying Congress for funding. The father of the modern space telescope, Spitzer himself, travelled across the country to make the argument for the instrument.

At first, it was a tough sell, and initial funding requests were denied. But once the European Space Agency offered to join the project and foot 15 percent of the bill in 1975, Congress was sold. They granted funding for the Large Space Telescope in 1977.

Construction on the Large Space Telescope's 2.4 meter mirrors began in 1979. NASA's MAshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, took the lead on designing, developing and building the telescope. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center would lead operations once it reached orbit. NASA astronauts trained to take the telescope into space and release it into its proper orbit.

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) at John's Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, which decides which scientific projects get to use the telescope, is established in 1981.

The initial launch date was set for 1983, but a series of delays caused the launch to be pushed back.

In 1983, the Large Space Telescope was given a new name: the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope was named after Edwin Powell Hubble, who discovered other galaxies and uncovered evidence of the universe's expansion.

In 1985, NASA completed construction on the Hubble Space Telescope.

The size of a school bus, the 43.5 foot-long Hubble weighed more than 24,000 pounds and had a maximum diameter of about 14 feet. Hubble's two 25-foot solar panels would power the spacecraft, which requires only two times the wattage that a hair dryer uses—about 2,100 watts.

The telescope's primary mirror weighed a whopping 1,825 pounds and was designed to gather data about the cosmos in ultraviolet through infrared wavelengths.

It was fully assembled and set to launch a year later, but then tragedy struck.

The devastating loss of the Challenger space shuttle opened the eyes of NASA and the country to the dangers of spaceflight. All shuttle flights were put on hold as NASA raced to understand the cause of the tragedy.

The Hubble Space Telescope used the delay to improve equipment on the telescope. Technicians replaced the telescope's aft shroud to make it easier for servicing missions and upgraded the solar panels.

Finally, after years of delay, the space shuttle Discovery ferried the Hubble Space Telescope to space on April 24, 1990. A crew of five astronauts would shepherd the telescope into its proper orbit and unleash it onto the stars. Its story was only just beginning.

On the 30th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's launch, NASA has released this image of the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its celestial neighbor, NGC 2020.

The telescope was only expected to last for 15 years, but after heartbreaking set-backs (including that mirror flaw), 4 successful servicing missions, and over 1.4 million observations, the Hubble Space Telescope is still revealing the wonders of the cosmos, 30 years after its launch.