TODAY IN HISTORY: The Hubble Space Telescope goes into orbit

On April 25, 1990, the crew of the American space shuttle Discovery placed the Hubble Space Telescope in low orbit around Earth. This space observatory was designed in the 1970s and was built in the 1980s, with the purpose of expanding the vision of the solar system, the galaxy and the universe. A short time later, the engineers noticed that Hubble had irregularities in the light, so they had to send astronauts on a repair mission. Solved the problem, in December of 1993 the telescope began to send its first images of the universe.

The telescope was named after Edwin Hubble, one of the most important astronomers of the 20th century. It is located 593 km above sea level, in a circular orbit around the earth whose period is approximately 96 minutes. It is cylindrical in shape and weighs approximately 11 tons. The resolution of the Hubble is 10 times greater than that of the terrestrial observatories, through which the numerous spatial phenomena, distant galaxies, blacks and gas clouds are observed.