Visiting Hubble in Orbit

摘要

Since its installation on orbit in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been visited four times by Space Shuttle crews for correcting faulty devices, replacing failed or degraded components, and installing higher performance subsystems and scientific instruments. This servicing concept has proven extremely successful and has not only allowed the survival of the orbiting observatory despite significant problems, but has also allowed keeping HST as an up to date facility with state of the art instrumentation. This author participated as a Mission Specialist in two of the four servicing missions so far, the first in 1993 and the third in 1999. The last servicing mission, SM4, is now planned for 2009 and should extend the useful life of HST well into next decade.