I'm going to keep this page simple, there will be no pictures, but just a bit of important history. This will be useful for presentation s, exams, etc.
- 1977: American congress approve funding for the Hubble
- 1978: Astronauts begin training
- 1979: Work begins on the 2.4 metre mirror for the telescope
- 1981:Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) starts operations in Baltimore, Maryland
- 1983: The telescope is renamed to the Hubble Space Telescope, after Edwin P. Hubble
- 1984: Space Telescope-European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF) begins operations in Garching, Munich
- 1985: The Hubble has been fully constructed
- 1986: Challenger disaster delays Hubble launch and all other space launches
- 1990: Launch: Shuttle Discovery (STS-31) launched on 24 April 1990. Hubble deployed on 25 April 1990. Spherical aberration discovered in the Hubble primary mirror, 25 June 1990. COSTAR approved: The creation of a complex package of five optical mirror pairs to rectify the spherical aberration in Hubble's primary mirror.
- 1993: First servicing mission(STS-61) launched on 2nd December aboard the Endeavour. COSTAR corrective optics installed, replacing HSP (High Speed Photometer).
WFPC2 (Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2) replaced WFPC1 (Wide Field and Planetary Camera 1). - 1994: Hubble takes pictures of the comet Shoemaker Levy 9 as it collides with Jupiter
- 1995: Hubble takes famous pictures "Pillars of Creation", located in the Eagle Nebula
- 1996: First Hubble Deep Field released, showing countless galaxies in Universe. Hubble resolves quasar host galaxies
- 1997: Servicing Mission 2 (STS-82) launched on 11 February 1997 (Discovery).STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph) replaced FOS (Faint Object Spectrograph).
NICMOS (Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph) replaces GHRS (Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph). - 1998: HST Orbital Systems Test (HOST - STS-95) launched on 29 October 1998 (Discovery). The HOST mission was flown to test new technologies to be used in Hubble on the Third Servicing Mission and beyond.
- 1999: Servicing Mission 3A (STS-103) launched on 19 December 1999 (Discovery).Replacement of gyroscopes. General maintenance (no science instruments replaced).
- 2001: Hubble observations detect the elements in the atmosphere of exoplanet HD 209458b.
- 2002: Servicing Mission 3B launched on 1 March 2002.Installation of ACS. Installation of NICMOS Cooling System (NCS). Installation of new Solar Panels.
- 2004: Power supply on STIS fails. Hubble Ultra Deep Field released.
- 2005: Hubble images two previously unknown moons orbiting Pluto.
- 2006: Hubble observations show that the dwarf planet Eris is bigger than Pluto.
- 2007: The power supply on the Advanced Camera for Surveys, one of Hubble’s key instruments, fails.
- 2008: Hubble photographs exoplanet Fomalhaut b, one of the first to be confirmed through direct imaging.
Hubble completes its 100,000th orbit around the Earth. - 2009: Servicing Mission 4 (STS-125) launched on 11 May 2009.Installation of WFC3 (Wide Field Camera 3). Installation of COS (Cosmic Origins Spectrograph). STIS and ACS repaired. Gyroscopes and batteries replaced. Soft Capture Mechanism installed. NOBLs (New Outer Blanket Layers) installed.
- 2010: Hubble images show distant galaxies with likely redshifts greater than 8, showing the Universe as it was when it was less than a tenth of its current age.
- 2011: Hubble makes its millionth observation, a spectroscopic analysis of the exoplanet HAT-P-7b.10 000th scientific paper using Hubble data is published, identifying the faintest supernova ever to be associated with a long-duration gamma-ray burst.