Hubble Space Telescope:
For more than a decade, the Hubble Space Telescope has dazzled with stunning pictures of stars, galaxies and planets both in our solar system and beyond. The telescope orbits Earth at an altitude of 612 km (380 statute miles) at 28,000 kph (17,500 mph). At that speed, one orbit takes only 97 minutes.

In order to take images of distant, faint objects, Hubble must be extremely steady and accurate. The telescope is able to lock onto a target without deviating more than 7/1000th of an arcsecond, or about the width of a human hair seen at a distance of 1 mile.

Visit the Hubble Space Telescope Website

04.24.90:  Launch 04.25.90:  Deployment by Space Shuttle Discovery Status:  Orbiting Earth Show All Dates for Hubble		07.17.08:  Three Red Spots Mix it Up on Jupiter 03.19.08:  Hubble Finds First Organic Molecule on an Exoplanet 12.18.07:  Mars: Closest Approach 2007 More Headlines
Hubble is about the size of a large school bus - 13.2 meters (43.5 feet). It weighs 11,110 kg (24,500 pounds) - as much as two full-grown elephants. Hubble is the world's first space-based optical telescope. In an average orbit Hubble uses 3,000 watts of energy - roughly the same as 30 household light bulbs.		Solar System Bodies: Beyond Our Solar System Hubble Multimedia Gallery