Happy Birthday, Hubble!

http://hubblesite.org/

Fifteen yeas ago, April 25th 1990, Hubble was launched into orbit.

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

Damn you, you ToSeeker!

Join the Save the Hubble campaign!

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Freedom For Fission A breath of fresh Iodine-131

Is there any hope left for Hubble? I thought it was pretty much toast at this point, which really stinks.

The new NASA administrator said, that perhaps the situation will be reassessed fter the shuttle flight. Let's see.

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

I don't want Hubble to be shut down. But having said that, if Hubble stopped working tomorrow, it'd still be the most scientifically successful space mission of all time IMHO. Let's celebrate 15 great years!

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"We need rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"

The BA is discussing the the birthday in his blog.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

The fact that it is considered to be the only true success since the end of the era of cool would make it absolutely stupid to let it go. How will we argue that the manned space program is worth it without Hubble?

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Freedom For Fission A breath of fresh Iodine-131

Only true success? I don't get something there. So what about Compton, Chandra, Spitzer, three Martian rovers, Galileo, Cassini (just to stay with programs NASA had a dominant role in)? Orbiting chopped liver?

Which is not to deny HST's unique public and scientific role. I hereby hoist this Pepsi can on the day which (according to NASA HQ policies, at least this year) marks the telescope's entry into borrowed time, as I prowl the HST archive for book illustrations. Five years ago I hosted a public event and gave out pieces of a big Hubble Birthday cookie - this time around the science museum an hour up the road is doing it up big-time.

(This should be #500 for me, so I'm staying out of the whole human-robotic spaceflight thing and whether servicing was or was not a Faustian bargain...)

Naturally, you are correct, ngc3314. What I meant to say was it was the greatest achievement of the manned space program since the era of cool. I know that many of those other probes were launched on the Space Shuttle, but they didn't need to be. On the other hand, Hubble was part of the manned space program because it's success depended on it being serviced even if wasn't manned most of the time.

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Freedom For Fission A breath of fresh Iodine-131