Hubble Space Telescope
Timeline

Year

Event
1977 American congress approves funding for Hubble.
1981 Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
begins operations in Baltimore, Maryland.
1984 Space Telescope-European Coordinating Facility
(ST-ECF) begins operations in Garching, Munich
1990 Launch: Shuttle Discovery (STS-31) launched on
24 April 1990.

Hubble deployed on April 25, 1990.
  Spherical aberration discovered in the Hubble
primary mirror, 25 June, 1990.
  COSTAR approved: The creation of a complex
package of five optical mirror pairs to rectify the spherical aberration
in Hubble’s primary mirror.
1993 First Servicing Mission (STS-61) launched on 2
December, 1993 (Endeavour).

COSTAR corrective optics installed, replacing
HSP (High Speed Photometer)

WFPC2 (Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2)
replaced WFPC1 (Wide Field and Planetary Camera 1).
1997 Servicing Mission 2 (STS-82) launched on 11
February, 1997 (Discovery).

STIS (Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph)
replaced FOS (Faint Object Spectrograph).

NICMOS (Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object
Spectrograph) replaced GHRS (Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph).
1998 HST Orbital Systems Test (HOST - STS-95)
launched on 29 October, 1998 (Discovery). The HOST mission was flown to
test new technologies to be used in Hubble on the Third Servicing
mission and beyond.
1999 Servicing Mission 3A (STS-103) launched on 19
December, 1999 (Discovery).

Replacement of gyroscopes.

General maintenance (no science instruments
replaced)
2002 Servicing Mission 3B.

Installation of ACS.

Installation of NICMOS Cooling System (NCS).

Installation of new Solar Panels.
2006-8? Servicing Mission 4? Robotic?

Installation of WFC3 (Wide Field Camera 3)?

Installation of COS (Cosmic Origins
Spectrograph)?

Battery maintenance?

Gyro maintenance?
2008-2012 End of Hubble operations. Controlled de-orbit.

 


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