Within weeks of the launch there was problems with the optical system. NASA and its much hyped telescope became the butt of many jokes.
And as if to add fuel to the fire of Hubble's critics, when it was eventually launched in 1990 scientists found that the main mirror had been ground incorrectly, severely compromising the telescope's capabilities. One can only imagine at the amount of red faces that abounded in NASA's headquarters around that time.

 

In 1993 the first service mission was sent to fix the flawed mirror. In January 1994 the world saw the first sharp image from Hubble the quality was breathtaking.

The Hubble is the only telescope ever designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. There have been five servicing missions, the last occurring in May 2009. Servicing Mission 1 took place in December 1993 when Hubble's imaging flaw was corrected. Servicing missions 2, 3A, and 3B repaired various sub-systems and replaced many of the observing instruments with more modern and capable versions.
However, following the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident, the fifth servicing mission was canceled on safety grounds. After spirited public discussion, NASA reconsidered this decision, and administrator Mike Griffin approved one final Hubble servicing mission.

STS-125 was launched in May 2009, and installed two new instruments and made numerous repairs. The latest servicing should allow the telescope to function until at least 2014, when its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is due to be launched.

 

James Webb Space Telescope

The JWST will be far superior to Hubble for many astronomical research programs, but will only observe in infrared, so it will complement (not replace) Hubble's ability to observe in the visible and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum. For more information visit the James Webb Space Telescope webiste.

 

Spitzer Telescope

Spitzer is the last of NASA's four great observatories in space. But unlike its older sibling, Hubble, which images mostly in visible light, Spitzer looks in infrared. So the telescope not only sees at a frequency that we can't, it does so while trailing the Earth at about 0.1 AU (1 astronomical unit is the mean distance between the Earth and Sun, or about 92,956,000 miles), thus free from atmospheric distortion. Visit The Spitzer Website for more information.

Kepler Telescope

Kepler is a planet hunter—its strict goal is to find Earth-like worlds. To locate them, the telescope is looking for transits—times when terrestrial-size planets cross in front of their star, temporarily darkening it. If the darkening is just the right amount, and happens on a regular schedule, that could be evidence of an Earth-sized world. Kepler might also find habitable Moons in other Solar Systems, new research suggests. The Kepler Website has a lot more to offer on the subject.

 

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