The Hubble Space Telescope
Revealing All the Secrets of the Universe
The Hubble Trouble
The Hubble Trouble
Moments after the Hubble Space Telescope sent its first images back down to Earth, astronomers felt a feeling of confusion, and then despair. Every image taken by the telescope had strange fuzzy rings around every star. The astronomers and aerospace engineers behind the telescope soon traced the problem to the primary mirror. For other parts, replacing them would be as simple as taking the module out and putting another back in. However, the primary and secondary mirrors were not designed to be replaced, at least not as easily as the others (Hille).
An image of technicans inspecting themselves through the primary mirror that would later become part of the Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA)
A comparison between two images; one without the COSTAR and WFPC2, and one with. (NASA)
Fortunately, there was already a scientific instrument that was in development when the Hubble Space Telescope launched. Named the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, WFPC2, this scientific instrument was supposed to be one of the first modules to be added to the telescope. However, NASA engineers realized that they could install corrective optics into the instrument to try and correct the mirror problem. Along with this, another team constructed another set of mirrors named the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, COSTAR. In December 1993, the first servicing mission was deployed, and the Hubble Trouble was solved (Hille).