description STS-61 Hubble Servicing Overview
During NASA's 1993 STS-61 mission, Space Shuttle Endeavour carried the crew and equipment for the first servicing visit to the Hubble Space Telescope. A series of spacewalks addressed the observatory's blurred vision, caused by spherical aberration in its primary mirror. Astronauts installed COSTAR, the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, to compensate for that error in several of Hubble's instruments. The mission also installed the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, which contained its own corrective optics.
Together, these changes enabled the telescope to deliver the sharp astronomical images expected from an observatory above Earth's atmosphere. STS-61 is particularly instructive for readers interested in repairing complex equipment in orbit. It shows how servicing hardware and carefully planned astronaut work could recover a scientific mission without replacing the telescope or physically reshaping its primary mirror.
help STS-61 Hubble Servicing FAQ
What was wrong with the Hubble Space Telescope's mirror?
Hubble's 2.4-meter primary mirror had been ground to the wrong shape due to a testing error at the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, leaving it with spherical aberration that caused blurry images. The flaw was discovered shortly after Hubble's deployment in 1990.
Which space shuttle flew the STS-61 Hubble servicing mission?
STS-61 was flown by the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launching from Kennedy Space Center in December 1993. Endeavour was at the time NASA's newest orbiter, having first flown in 1992 as a replacement for the lost Challenger.
What corrective instruments were installed during STS-61?
The crew installed the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR), a device containing small mirrors that corrected the light path for Hubble's instruments. They also replaced the original Wide Field and Planetary Camera with the upgraded WFPC-2, which had its own built-in corrective optics.
How many spacewalks were performed during the STS-61 mission?
The crew conducted a record five EVAs (extravehicular activities) during the 11-day mission, with astronauts Story Musgrave and Kathryn Thornton performing key spacewalks. This set a new standard for the most spacewalks conducted on a single shuttle mission.
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