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Hubble in orbit

The Hubble Space Telescope has been orbiting Earth for more than a quarter century. It's sent back some astonishing photos during that time, while too expanding our noesis of the universe. The telescope got its last maintenance sweep in 2009, but now in that location'south talk in the government of sending another to the 27 twelvemonth-one-time telescope. Of course, that's going to be tricky without a Space Shuttle.

Hubble was launched in 1990 with great fanfare, but astronomers quickly realized it wasn't working correctly. A defect in the mirror resulted in blurry images of objects the telescope should have been able to come across in crystal clarity. Astronauts repaired the telescope in 1993 past adding an instrument to right for the lens abnormality — essentially eyeglasses for Hubble. That was the first of five service missions that added new cameras, repaired gyroscopes, and replaced the batteries.

The last Hubble service mission was in 2009, prior to the stop of Shuttle flights in 2011. Hubble has long outlived its original life bridge, and it'south due for replacement presently. The James Webb Infinite telescope is going to launch in the next few years, but Hubble could become a new lease on life with some other service mission. This is still in the early stages, just officials remember that private space firm Sierra Nevada could have a vehicle capable of going on a Hubble refurbishment mission.

Sierra Nevada flies an unmanned "mini-shuttle" called the Dream Attorney, which it has developed over the course of the last several years. Dream Chaser is based on designs generated in the early days of the Shuttle programme, as well as the Air Forcefulness's X-37B space plane. An unmanned version of the Dream Chaser could exist used for Space Station resupply missions as before long as 2018, but a Hubble service mission would crave a manned flight.

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Keeping Hubble operational would serve 2 purposes. First, it'south a hedge confronting potential issues with the Webb Telescope. Dissimilar Hubble, Webb will exist positioned far away from Earth at the L2 Lagrange point. That's a stable orbital location that keeps the World between the telescope and the sun. It will be as well far abroad to service effectively, then making sure the Hubble works every bit a backup could exist smart. There volition likewise be limited time on the Webb Telescope for astronomers, so keeping some observations on Hubble could gratuitous up time for studies that tin can only be completed by the more powerful Webb Telescope.

In that location'south still a lot of design and testing that needs to be washed before Dream Chaser can accept astronauts into space. However, the craft was designed from the start to theoretically back up a crew. It has also been put forward as a possible space ambulance for the ISS.

Now read: The 25 best Hubble Infinite Telescope images