When NASA determined
within the Nineteen Seventies that the Hubble House Telescope ought to be serviceable in area, the engineering challenges should have appeared practically insurmountable. How may a machine that complicated and delicate be repaired by astronauts sporting 130-kilogram fits with thick gloves?

In the long run, spacewalkers not solely mounted the telescope, they recurrently remade it.

That was attainable as a result of engineers designed Hubble to be
toroidal, its main techniques specified by wedge-shaped gear bays that astronauts may open from the surface. A collection of upkeep workstations on the telescope’s outer floor ensured astronauts may have prepared entry to essential telescope components.

On 5 space-shuttle
servicing missions between 1993 and 2009, 16 spacewalkers changed each main part besides the telescope’s mirrors and outer pores and skin. They elevated its electrical provide by 20 p.c. They usually tripled its potential to pay attention and sense mild, job one in all any telescope.

The now legendary orbital observatory was constructed to final 15 years in area. However with updates, it has operated for greater than 30—a historical past of invention and re-invention to make any engineering group proud. “Twice the lifetime,” says astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, who flew on Hubble’s 1990 launch mission. “Simply strive discovering one thing else that has improved with age in area. I dare you.”