Title

Polishing the mirror of the Hubble Telescope, 1980s. Artist: Unknown

Caption

Polishing the mirror of the Hubble Telescope, 1980s. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST), was designed to see seven times further into space than had been possible before, without the distortion caused by the earth's atmosphere. HST is a reflecting telescope and its main mirror has a diameter of 2 1/2 meter. Work began in 1977 and HST was finally launched by Space Shuttle Discovery on 24 April 1990. Problems with its giant mirror meant that it did not initially work as well as expected. Corrective optics were installed in 1993, greatly improving the telescope's performance, enabling it to view the Universe in unprecedented detail.
Oxford Science Archive

Date

1980

Credit line

Photo12/Heritage Images/NASA

Reference

HRM19B63_278

Model release

No

License type

Rights managed

Available size

49,9Mb (3,2Mb) / 15,6in x 12,4in / 4687 x 3724 (300dpi)

Keywords

people male job technology man men optical space exploration science space shuttle guy occupation telescope astronomy color colour innovation scientist century profession mirror concept spacecraft orbit polishing NASA Eighties Hubble Space Telescope 1980s 20th century Space Shuttle Discovery Oxford Science Archive decade polishing machine reflecting telescope photograph Unknown National Aeronautics and Space Administration HST photograph