April 24 1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope is Launched
*Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons Some 44 years after the idea was first proposed by Princeton University astronomer and theoretical physicist Lyman Spitzer, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was lifted into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Coming in at more than six times the projected cost by the time it was launched, the HST has provided researchers unparalleled views of the universe for more than two decades. The foundation for placing a large telescope in orbit was laid in the early 1920s, when physicists Hermann Oberth and Robert Goddard made advances in rocket technology that would allow massive payloads to escape Earth’s gravity. By the end of World War II, after German scientist Werner von Braun’s team invented the V-2 rocket — a ballistic missile capable of reaching an altitude of 128 miles — it seemed likely man would one day be able to explore well beyond the upper atmosphere. Writing in 1946, Spitzer felt there would be enormous advantages to launching an observatory beyond the atmosphere. Unlike terrestrial telescopes, he postulated, the lack of distortion created by weather systems and winds would allow for clearer views of deep space phenomena — minor distances between far-off stars could be observed with precision.