John W. Young (left) and Robert L. Crippen (right), crew of the Columbia’s maiden voyage
Hubble Space Telescope Launch:
Like the Columbia, the Hubble Space Telescope was also launched into LEO nearly a decade later, on April 25th, 1990. It has since become extremely famous, if not the most famous telescope in the world; its images are instrumental in demonstrating to the public the vast beauty of space and the merit of astronomical exploration.
Named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble, the HST was launched by the space shuttle Discovery. Over the years, there have been many expeditions to the telescope to repair it, run diagnostics and update its machinery with more advanced telescoping technology. Currently, the Hubble Space telescope has 6 instruments:
- The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)
- The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS)
- The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)
- The Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS)
- The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS)
- The Fine Guidance Sensors (FSG).