The Hubble Space Telescope: The History and Legacy of the World's Most Famous Telescope

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,...