Jun 27 1990
From The Space Library
NASA said that the Hubble Space Telescope, which had been plagued with problems, was discovered to have a flawed mirror, causing the $1.5 billion instrument to be "near sighted." The mirrors, which were ground into the wrong shape, rendered useless the telescope's most important scientific instrument, a widefield planetary camera designed to explore the farthest reaches of the universe. Engineers said that instruments scheduled to be attached to the telescope in 1993, 1996, and 1997 could compensate for the flaw and added that these flight schedules might be advanced. Tests were not done on the effectiveness of the mirrors before the telescope was launched because engineers felt that the checks were cost prohibitive. (P Inq, Jun 28/90; NY Times, June 28/90; W Post, Jun 28/90)
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