Today is the 22nd anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. I worked on Hubble one way or another for a decade or so, and it changed not just my life, but the lives of astronomers around the world, and of course forever altered for the better! how the public viewed of astronomy.

To acknowledge this, below is a repost of my "Ten Things You Dont Know About Hubble", first put on the blog in 2010, and which I think still holds up. And what better way to celebrate this observatorys anniversary than to get to know it a little better?

Introduction

On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery roared into space, carrying on board a revolution: The Hubble Space Telescope. It was the largest and most sensitive optical-light telescope ever launched into space, and while it suffered initially from a focusing problem, it would soon return some of the most amazing and beautiful astronomical images anyone had ever seen.

Hubble was designed to be periodically upgraded, and even as I write this, astronauts are in the Space Shuttle Atlantis installing two new cameras, fixing two others, and replacing a whole slew of Hubbles parts. This is the last planned mission, ever, to service the venerable scope, so what better time to talk about it?

Plus, its arguably the worlds most famous telescope (its probably the only one people know by name), and yet I suspect that there are lots of things about it that might surprise you. So I present to you Ten Things You Dont Know About the Hubble Space Telescope, part of my Ten Things series. I know, my readers are smart, savvy, exceptionally good-looking, and well-versed in things astronomical. Whenever I do a Ten Things post some goofball always claims they knew all ten. But I am extremely close to being 100% positive that no one who reads this blog will know all ten things here (unless theyve used Hubble themselves). I have one or two big surprises in this one, including some of my own personal interactions with the great observatory!

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Happy 22nd, Hubble! | Bad Astronomy