As you all know, I am a complete, absolute, and total Hubble fan.  I’m hardly alone in this, either.  The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most beloved of NASA ventures, although its beginning was rather inauspicious.  Ah, yes; today I’m yapping on about My Hubble.

NASA - Hubble seen from the space shuttle Atlantis after its fourth servicing mission

Launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was already 7 years overdue.  The program had been beset by troubles since its beginning, when it was funded in the 1970′s.  After launch, horror of horrors, its images were blurry.  Hubble’s main mirror had a tiny flaw in grounding, and the entire program looked to be a wash.  In 1993 another NASA mission corrected for the slight error (yes, the Hubble is, in effect, wearing glasses), and Hubble began a 17 year stretch of providing some of the most beautiful, majestic, and important images ever collected.

Excellent diagram of Hubble by Andrew Buck, all rights reserved

The Hubble was designed to be serviced in space, and it has been through five servicing missions.  The last mission, in 2009, made Hubble good to go until at least 2014, when the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to launch.  The Webb is designed to be Hubble’s successor.

Hubble is not the first space telescope, nor is it now the only space telescope, but it is without a doubt the most beloved.  Its image is iconic; school kids draw pictures of Hubble and send them to NASA… and NASA proudly displays the drawings like parents posting them on the refrigerator.  NASA is now collecting messages to Hubble, to be stored with the Hubble archives, and thousands have already written in to tell NASA how Hubble has effected their lives.  As I said, I’m hardly alone in my unwavering love of Hubble.

NASA/ESA - Hubble in orbit

Hubble is in a low Earth orbit, and if conditions are right, you can see Hubble track across the sky every 96 minutes (I think that’s right).  The HubbleSite will show you at all times exactly where Hubble is over the Earth.  I tell you, when I see the glint of light high in the sky that I know is Hubble, I get absolutely goofy; jumping up and down, grabbing my kids (and unlucky passersby), pointing and yelling, “There’s Hubble!  Look!  Go, Hubble!” like I’ve just seen a rock star.

Funny thing is, when I do that, I’m immediately joined by a throng of people looking up in expectant awe.  When I look at those faces, the faces of strangers united for a brief moment, I know the greatest gift Hubble has given to us.  We all stand united, as a species, as never before, in humble awe at the vision of the Cosmos Hubble has given us.

Hubble; it is indeed out of the ordinary, out of this world.

Here’s a link to Hubble’s website.