HST-the half-way point [Hubble Space Telescope]

Summary form only given. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in April 1990 with a great deal of media coverage. When the telescope was subsequently found to suffer from spherical aberration, the project was declared a failure. However, even with the spherical aberration problem, the telescope performed very well and obtained science observations that could not have been otherwise done. In December 1993, the first in a series of planned servicing missions was carried out by the crew of the shuttle Endeavour. In the 3 years since that mission, HST has not only performed in a spectacular fashion, but has produced thousands of truly remarkable images, including the very depths of the observable Universe for the Hubble Deep Field project. Indeed, the astronomical community is poised to answer some of the fundamental questions about the size and age of the Universe we live in, and this is in no small part due to the observations made with the HST.