Happy Birthday Hubble Space Telescope : 30 today!

What an achievement. The famous telescope was launched 30 years ago! Ever since the famous NASA astronaut Dr Story Musgrave and his team serviced and repaired the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, it has been taking beautiful crystal clear images from space. The Endeavour Space Shuttle was launched at night from the Kennedy Space Centre on 2nd December 1993 on the first Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing and repair mission STS-61. During this 11-day flight, the HST was restored to its full capabilities through the work of two pairs of astronauts during a record 5 spacewalks. Dr. Musgrave performed 3 of these spacewalks. After having travelled 4,433,772 miles in 163 orbits of the Earth, Endeavour returned to a night landing in Florida on December 13, 1993. Mission duration was 10 days, 19 hours, 59 minutes.

To celebrate 30 years in space for the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA has released this fabulous image taken by Hubble:-

The Cosmic Reef - NGC 2014 is the larger nebula with its companion nebula NGC 2020

Picture credit NASA/ESA