#NASA, #Space, #astronomy, #διάστημα,
On December 10, 1993, the crew of Space Shuttle Endeavour (mission STS-61) gently released the Hubble Space Telescope back into the void, and in that instant, humanity finally opened its eyes to the universe.For three and a half agonizing years, the world’s most famous telescope had been flying blind. A mirror flaw (just 2 microns too flat at the edges) had turned the crown jewel of astronomy into a billion-dollar blur. Launched amid global fanfare in April 1990, Hubble had quickly become the most expensive embarrassment in space history.But everything changed on this day.Over the course of 10 days, 23 hours, and 58 minutes, seven astronauts turned STS-61 into the most daring repair job ever attempted in orbit. Five spacewalks (an all-time shuttle record at the time), each lasting six to seven grueling hours, performed in gloves so thick that every twist of a bolt felt like threading a needle while wearing oven mitts. One slip could have ended decades of science.They installed the new Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. They slid in the legendary “fix” — COSTAR, a telephone-booth-sized optical Band-Aid packed with tiny mirrors that perfectly counteracted the mirror’s flaw. They swapped out failing gyroscopes, replaced the jittery old solar wings with new ones that no longer shook during observations, and upgraded critical electronics.When Endeavour finally backed away, commander Dick Covey fired the thrusters. Hubble drifted silently into the darkness, free once more.A few days later, the first test images arrived.
The stars were no longer smudges. They were pinpricks of fire, razor-sharp against the black.From that moment on, we have seen the universe the way Hubble always meant us to see it: deep, breathtaking, alive with detail.And it all began when, on December 10, 1993, the shuttle’s robotic arm opened its grip and let go of a telescope that was no longer blind.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου