The Hubble Space Telescope: The History and Legacy of the World’s Most Famous Telescope
Written by Charles River Editors
Narrated by Colin Fluxman
()
About this audiobook
On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on the Space Shuttle Program’s 35th mission, but this was no ordinary mission. In its payload bay, Discovery was carrying the Hubble Space Telescope, with the objective of putting the telescope into orbit.
By the time the Hubble telescope reached orbit, it was already the world’s most famous telescope, but it was also the most scorned. The telescope cost nearly $2 billion more to complete than anticipated, and to make matters worse, the first images it sent back were skewed.
When the telescope immediately began transmitting defective images, NASA and the telescope became laughingstocks, literally. In the popular comedy movie Naked Gun 2 1/2, released in 1991, one scene in a café shows a picture of the telescope between pictures of the Titanic and the Hindenburg, implying it was a disaster.
It would take three years to launch another space shuttle mission to fix the telescope, and that would be just the first of five servicing missions that have been performed in the 21 years the telescope has been in orbit. However, within about a year of fixing it, the telescope captured images of a major event in the solar system. In July 1994, the telescope provided a firsthand observation of a comet, Shoemaker-Levy 9, breaking apart and slamming into Jupiter. The comet broke into about two dozen pieces, some of them more than a mile wide, and hit the giant planet with the force of millions of atomic bombs. In addition to capturing the streaking comet breaking up and colliding with Jupiter, the telescope captured images of the impact marks that were left on Jupiter’s surface, helping astronomers study Jupiter’s atmosphere and debris left by major impacts.
Related to The Hubble Space Telescope
Related audiobooks
The Voyager Program: The History and Legacy of NASA's First Probes that Traveled to the Outer Solar System Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Apollo's Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Space 2069: After Apollo: Back to the Moon, to Mars, and Beyond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Surveyor Program: The History and Legacy of NASA’s First Successful Moon Landing Missions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReaching for the Moon: Short History of the Space Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Project Gemini: The History and Legacy of NASA’s Human Spaceflight Missions Before the Apollo Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Moon Missions Before Apollo: The History of NASA’s Pioneer, Ranger, and Surveyor Programs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Physics of Star Wars: The Science Behind a Galaxy Far, Far Away Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mars: A Planet in our Solar System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOur Universe: An Astronomer's Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spaceflight: A Concise History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astrophysics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDisaster Strikes!: The Most Dangerous Space Missions of All Time Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of Ten Billion Earths: How We Learn About Our Planet's Past and Future From Distant Exoplanets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Apollo 11: An AP Special Anniversary Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAstronomy II: Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chandra's Cosmos: Dark Matter, Black Holes, and Other Wonders Revealed by NASA's Premier X-Ray Observatory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rockets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Viking Program: The History and Legacy of NASA's First Missions to Mars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Venus: A Planet in our Solar System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGalaxy Girls: 50 Amazing Stories of Women in Space Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Shadow of a Doubt: The 1919 Eclipse That Confirmed Einstein's Theory of Relativity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsApollo 13 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Discovering Mars: A History of Observation and Exploration of the Red Planet Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Astronomy & Space Sciences For You
Beginning and the End of Everything: From the Big Bang to the End of the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Matter & Dark Energy: The Hidden 95% of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Forces of Nature Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Latest Scientific Discoveries Reveal God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chasing Proof, Finding Faith: A Young Scientist’s Search for Truth in a World of Uncertainty Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of the Moon: A Guide to Our Closest Neighbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Days that Divide the World, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Brief History of Black Holes: And why nearly everything you know about them is wrong Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Science of Interstellar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Peregrine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Invisible College: What a Group of Scientists Has Discovered About UFO Influences on the Human Race Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Theories of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man on the Moon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Book of Aliens Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Extraterrestrial Species Almanac: The Ultimate Guide to Greys, Reptilians, Hybrids, and Nordics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Apollo 11: The Inside Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Lives of Planets: Order, Chaos, and Uniqueness in the Solar System Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Hubble Space Telescope
0 ratings0 reviews