WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The bus-size Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is carefully being transferred on March 29 from the surgically clean Payload Changeout Room at Launch Pad 39B into the cargo bay of the orbiter Discovery. The payload ground handling mechanism (left) is a device that extends the HST into the cargo bay (right), allowing workers to fasten it in place with four retention latches. Deployment of Hubble will occur during the five-day flight of Space Shuttle Mission STS-31, set for April 10. With HST, astronomers will be able to view 97 percent of the known universe, and will be able to get pictures unlimited and undistorted by the Earth's atmosphere. Compared with earth-based observatories, the HST will be able to view celestial objects that are 50 times fainter, provide images that are 10 times sharper, and see objects that are seven times farther away