A spiral galaxy with an oval-shaped disk. Two large arms curve out away from the ends of the disk. Bright pink patches and dark reddish threads of dust fill the arms. The bright pink patches indicate where stars are forming. The core is very bright and filled with stars. Some large stars appear in front of the galaxy. Directly under the point where the right arm joins the disk, a fading supernova is visible as a green dot.

Hubble image of the Eagle Nebula, also called "The Pillars of Creation"

Hubble Space Telescope
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Hubble Space Telescope being deployed — The Hubble Space Telescope is deployed on April 25, 1990 from the space shuttle Discovery. Avoiding distortions of the atmosphere, Hubble has an unobstructed view peering to planets, stars and galaxies, some more than 13.4 billion light years away.
NASA/Smithsonian Institution/Lockheed Corporation

Three STS-31 astronauts look at Hubble through overhead windows. — Three STS-31 crew members look at the Hubble Space Telescope through overhead windows on space shuttle Discovery, April 25, 1990. Left to right are Bruce McCandless, Steve Hawley and Loren Shriver.
NASA

STS-31 Mission Specialist (MS) Sullivan dons EMU in OV-103's airlock — STS-31 Mission Specialist (MS) Kathryn D. Sullivan, wearing extravehicular mobility unit (EMU) & communications carrier assembly (CCA), attaches service and cooling umbilical (SCU) to the EMU connection on the display & control module (DCM) during contingency extravehicular activity (EVA) preparations in the airlock of Discovery, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 103. The procedure was completed in case an EVA was required to support Hubble Space Telescope (HST) deployment.
NASA

Nancy Grace Roman (1925-2018), NASA’s first chief astronomer, is known as the ‘Mother of Hubble.’
NASA

NASA Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate Dr. Edward J. Weiler discusses newly released images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. The images were from four of the telescopes’ six operating science instruments.
NASA/Bill Ingalls

Preston Burch (right) and David Leckrone (left) observe the fourth extravehicular activity (EVA) of Servicing Mission 4 (SM4). Preston Burch was NASA’s Hubble Program Manager and Associate Director of the Astrophysics Projects Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. David Leckrone was NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Senior Project Scientist.
NASA / Michael Soluri

Flight Director Milton Heflin, at the console in the Flight Control Room in JSC's Mission Control Center — Flight Director (FD) Milton Heflin, at the FD console in the Flight Control Room in JSC’s Mission Control Center Bldg. 30, monitors the extravehicular activity of the STS-61 Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.
NASA

Joseph Rothenberg, Hubble Program Manager — During the “Hubble Space Telescope: 25 Years of Servicing” seminar at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on December 7, 2018, Joseph Rothenberg, who was Hubble Program Manager during Servicing Mission 1, speaks about the challenges and environment faced after the discovery of Hubble’s blurred vision and the years leading up to the first servicing mission.
NASA/Bill Hrybyk

Hubble Deputy Project Manager James Jeletic (left) and Satellite Servicing Special Consultant Frank Cepollina — Hubble Deputy Project Manager James Jeletic (left) thanks Satellite Servicing Special Consultant Frank Cepollina (right) for his talk and for his contributions over decades to satellite servicing during the “Hubble Space Telescope: 25 Years of Servicing” seminar at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on December 7, 2018.
NASA/Bill Hrybyk

View of Hubble after being released from the Space Shuttle Atlantis — An STS-125 crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis captured this still image of the Hubble Space Telescope as the two spacecraft continued their relative separation on May 19, 2009, after having been linked together for the better part of a week. During the week, five spacewalks were performed to complete the final servicing mission for the orbital observatory.
NASA

Anchored on the end of orbiter Endeavour's remote manipulator system arm, astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman prepares to install the new camera into the Hubble Space Telescope — Anchored on the end of orbiter Endeavour’s remote manipulator system arm, astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman (foreground) prepares to install the new wide field planetary camera into the empty cavity of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Astronaut Story Musgrave works with a portable foot restraint.
NASA

Three members of the STS-61 crew prepare covers to be placed on magnetometers near the top of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Left to right are Richard O. Covey, mission commander; Kenneth D. Bowersox, pilot and Claude Nicollier, mission specialist. On the following day, astronauts Jeffrey A. Hoffman and F. Story Musgrave placed the covers on the magnetometers as they wrapped up five days of servicing on HST.
NASA

STS-82 crew members prepare for portrait in the middeck with "More Power" banner and Hubble shirts — STS-82 crew members prepare for portrait in the middeck with “More Power” banner and Hubble shirts. Front, from left, Mission Specialist Joe Tanner, Payload Commander Mark Lee and Commander Ken Bowersox. Back, from left, Mission Specialists Steve Hawley and Steve Smith.
NASA

The NASA History Office collects oral history interviews to document the experiences of individuals who were involved in every aspect of NASA’s programs and missions, and include lessons learned, science and engineering objectives, methodologies, team dynamics, and management decisions.

The oral history interviews listed below represent the contributions of a wide selection of individuals involved in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program, and also include interviews collected by Christopher Gainor for his book, Not Yet Imagined, A Study of Hubble Space Telescope Operations.

Name	Interview Dates	Title
Thomas R. Ayers	9/23/15	Astronomer, University of Colorado
Steven Beckwith	9/26/16	Director, Space Telescope Science Institute
Charles F. Bolden	1/6/04, 1/15/04 9/24/14 3/6/15 3/18/16	Pilot, STS-31, HST deployment NASA Administrator
Michele Brekke	6/20/17 7/20/17 8/17/17 8/24/17	Assistant Mission Manager STS-31, HST deployment
Randolph H. Brinkley	1/15/98 1/25/98 5/1/13 2/23/16 2/24/16	Mission Director, STS-61 HST Servicing Mission 1
Frank J. Cepollina	6/11/13 5/8/15	Satellite Servicing Project Manager
Richard O. Covey	11/1/06 11/15/06 2/7/07 3/28/07	Commander, STS-61 HST Servicing Mission 1
Alphonso V. Diaz	4/12/17 6/6/17	Associate Administrator Science Mission Directorate
Lee D. Feinberg	7/3/18	Optical Engineer HST Servicing Mission 1, 2
Lennard A. Fisk	9/8/10 9/9/10	Associate Administrator Space Science and Applications
Jeffrey M. Hanley	2/3/16 2/11/16	Flight Director HST Servicing Mission 1, 2
David N. Haskins	6/15/16	HST Payload Data Engineer Electrical Power System Engineer
Steven A. Hawley	12/4/02 12/17/02 1/14/03	Mission Specialist STS-31, HST deployment STS-82, HST Servicing Mission 2
J. Milton Heflin	3/9/98 6/3/03 5/23/17 5/30/17 8/15/17 10/17/17	Lead Flight Director, STS-61 HST Servicing Mission 1
Noel W. Hinners	8/18/10 8/19/10	NASA Headquarters Chief Scientist
Jeffrey F. Hoffman	4/2/09 11/3/09 11/12/09 11/17/10	EVA crewmember, STS-61 Hubble Servicing Mission 1
John D. Holt	11/3/04 12/1/04 2/2/05	Mission Director, STS-103 HST Servicing Mission 3 Chairman, HST Shuttle Servicing Mission Review Chairman, HST Deorbit/Robotic Servicing Review
Frank E. Hughes	8/29/13 9/10/13 9/17/13 9/25/13 9/30/13 10/8/13 10/29/13 11/18/13 11/21/13	Chief, Space Flight Training Division Johnson Space Center
James F. Jeletic	5/19/17	Deputy Project Manager, HST
James B. Odom	7/20/10	Manager, Hubble Space Telescope Project
William F. Readdy	3/20/12	Associate Administrator, Space Operations Mission Directorate
Nancy Grace Roman	9/15/00	Chief of Astronomy, Office of Space Science
Joseph H. Rothenberg	3/12/04 9/27/16	HST Operations Manager Associate Director, HST Flight Projects
Loren J. Shriver	12/16/02 12/18/02	Commander, STS-31 HST deployment
Kathryn D. Sullivan	5/10/07 9/11/07 3/12/08 5/28/09	Mission Specialist STS-31, HST deployment
Raymond Villard	10/30/15 11/4/16	News Chief, Space Telescope Science Institute
Edward J. Weiler	10/31/07 10/24/16 4/4/17	Chief Scientist, Hubble Space Telescope

The transcripts available on this site are created from audio-recorded oral history interviews. To preserve the integrity of the audio record, the transcripts are presented with limited revisions and thus reflect the candid conversational style of the oral history format. Brackets and ellipses indicate where the text has been annotated or edited for clarity. Any personal opinions expressed in the interviews should not be considered the official views or opinions of NASA, the NASA History Office, NASA historians, or staff members.

Not Yet Imagined

A Study of Hubble Space Telescope Operations, Christopher Gainor

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To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's deployment into space, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., pointed Hubble's eye at an especially photogenic pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. This image is a composite of Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 data taken on December 17, 2010, with three separate filters that allow a broad range of wavelengths covering the ultraviolet, blue, and red portions of the spectrum.

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