The article reports on the first servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, which began on December 5, 1993. This mission, executed by the Space Shuttle Endeavour, was intended to correct a critical flaw in Hubble’s primary mirror. This flaw, known as “spherical aberration”, had made many of Hubble’s initial images blurry, severely limiting its scientific potential.
The Endeavour’s crew, led by mission commander Richard Covey and pilot Kenneth Bowersox, included four mission specialists: Story Musgrave, Kathryn Thornton, Claude Nicollier and Jeffrey Hoffman. Thornton and Nicollier conducted the mission’s first spacewalk, removing two of Hubble’s scientific instruments – the High-Speed Photometer and the Wide Field/Planetary Camera – and replacing them with the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2).
COSTAR was specifically designed to correct the spherical aberration for three of Hubble’s scientific instruments: the Faint Object Camera, the Faint Object Spectrograph, and the Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph. The WFPC2, on the other hand, had its own built-in corrective optics, which allowed it to bypass the flawed primary mirror entirely. Musgrave and Hoffman conducted the mission’s second and third spacewalks, installing these two instruments.
The Endeavour’s crew also carried out a number of other repairs and upgrades to Hubble, including replacing its solar arrays and gyroscopes, installing new magnetometers, and adding a co-processor to its computer. These enhancements greatly improved Hubble’s stability and increased its computational speed.
The mission, which lasted for 10 days, was a resounding success. After the installation of the corrective optics and the completion of the other repairs, Hubble was able to capture images with an unprecedented level of detail and clarity. This marked a turning point in the history of the Hubble Space Telescope, allowing it to fulfill its promise as a revolutionary tool for astronomical research.
The first servicing mission to Hubble demonstrates the importance of regular maintenance and upgrades to the ongoing operation of space-based observatories. It also highlights the role of human spaceflight in conducting these complex tasks. The Hubble Space Telescope continues to operate to this day, providing scientists with invaluable data on the cosmos.
Source link