Abstract

The goal of orbiting an astronomical telescope with very high quality optics was established near the beginning of NASA's history. Its most forceful and persuasive early advocate was Lyman Spitzer, who played a major role in setting both the scientific and technical objectives and in obtaining the support required to carryout the project. Feasibility and engineering studies were begun in the 1960s, culminating in 1977 in contracts for construction of the telescope and its supporting spacecraft by Perkin-Elmer Corp, and Lockheed Missiles & Space Co., respectively. The demanding engineering task of producing a 2.4-m aperture telescope and associated pointing control capable of maintaining 0.1-sec of arc image quality throughout exposure times of hours led to some early delays in the launch date, and the flight was delayed further as a result of the Challenger tragedy. Now scheduled for launch in early 1990, the HST will carry out research on topics ranging from atmospheres of planets within our solar system to evolution of galaxies and the distance scale and age of the Universe. Most exciting of all will be the discoveries resulting from images with an order of magnitude higher resolution than have been possible before.

© 1989 Optical Society of America