Hubble: The Mirror They Never Replaced

Hubble’s mirror was precisely made—and precisely wrong. Follow the testing error, the repair in orbit, and the real image that proved a telescope could be saved without replacing its primary mirror. Archival film and historical photographs: NASA. STS-31 launch, STS-61 training and servicing, and the team viewing the first corrected images. Archive: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13081/ and https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13082/ . Footage is cropped, upscaled and edited. Original source soundtracks are not used. No NASA endorsement implied. Media-use conditions: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-cente... M100 comparison: ESA/Hubble & NASA. Actual WFPC1 and WFPC2 observations before and after the first servicing mission; not a digitally blurred reconstruction. Source: https://science.nasa.gov/image-detail... . Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ; terms: https://esahubble.org/copyright/ . Cropped, enlarged and annotated for explanation. The light-path drawing is an original unfolded conceptual explanation. Geometry and error are exaggerated; it is not a ray-traced simulation or a literal drawing of every reflection inside the telescope. Narration: G / Kokoro af_heart, stock synthetic English narration rendered locally. Music (excerpted, faded, level-adjusted and mixed under narration): “Measured Paces” — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Source: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty... Creative Commons Attribution license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... “Gymnopedie No1” — Erik Satie; performed by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Creative Commons Attribution license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... “The Descent” — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Source: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty... Creative Commons Attribution license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... “Almost New” — Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Source: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty... Creative Commons Attribution license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Sources: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubb... https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubb... https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19910... Original script and editing: CRITICAL SECONDS. #Hubble #Space #Science