Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope
The first of NASA's Great Observatories for Space Astrophysics
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The Hubble Space Telescope

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NASA art of Hubble orbiting above Earth and open to the cosmos

NASA's Great Observatories for Space Astrophysics are a family of four orbiting satellites carrying telescopes designed to study the Universe in both visible light and non-visible forms of radiation.

The first in the series was the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990. Hubble observes mostly in visible light, but also has an infrared camera and a spectrometer.

Hubble is controlled by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. The satellite is scheduled to stay in orbit above earth until 2010, sending down pictures of the Universe long into the future.

Astronauts travel in a space shuttle up to Hubble periodically to service the giant instrument. A fourth such flight was successful in 2002.

A telescope to replace Hubble is being planned. It will be designed to provide even clearer pictures of our Universe than those received today. The new telescope has not yet been funded, and so it's not currently being built, but it probably will be.

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