Deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope HST was put into orbit from the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS on April HST is shown still in the grasp of the shuttles robot arm with the earth in the background during the deployment of the solar panels and antennae HST was designed to see seven times further into space than had been possible before without the distortion caused by the earths atmosphere Problems with its giant mirror meant that it did not initially work as well as expected Corrective optics were installed in greatly improving the telescopes performance enabling it to view the Universe in unprecedented detail
