Trouble with Hubble: 2. The eye opens

The Hubble Space Telescope’s 1990 deployment faced immense pressure, characterized by a complex robotic arm maneuver and a critical failure of the solar array deployment mechanism. With battery power rapidly depleting, astronauts Kathy Sullivan and Bruce McCandless prepared for a high-risk, last-minute spacewalk to manually force the solar panels open. Although ground control successfully overrode a faulty tension sensor to deploy the arrays, the mission’s triumph was short-lived. Upon capturing its first images, the telescope revealed a devastating optical flaw, producing blurry, low-quality data instead of the anticipated sharp, high-resolution views of the universe. This moment marked the beginning of a major crisis for NASA, as the long-awaited observatory struggled to focus, threatening the success of a project that had consumed two decades and billions of dollars.