Hubble at 25 still inspires

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: The countdown to the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope has begun. On April 24, 1990, the telescope left Earth in the bay of Space Shuttle Discovery.

NASA billed it then as the most sophisticated and powerful telescope ever made. It was specifically designed to do things no other telescope hampered by the distortions of atmospheric conditions could do.

A day later, Hubble was launched into orbit from Discovery’s bay. Immediately, there was a sense of wonder and anticipation. The telescope viewed the cosmos with fresh eyes and deepened people’s appreciation for the splendor, beauty and utter strangeness of the universe.

In December 1993, Hubble began operating at optimal levels with follow-up visits and adjustments by astronauts as recently as 2009. The result of all this fine tuning has been hundreds of thousands of images that have deepened mankind’s understanding of the nature of time and space.

Soon, Hubble will no longer be the standard for space telescopes.