Hubble Space Telescope in orbit s Artists impression of the Hubble Telescope in orbit over the earth The Hubble Space Telescope HST was designed to see seven times further into space than had been possible before without the distortion caused by the earths atmosphere HST is a reflecting telescope and its main mirror has a diameter of meters Work began in and HST was finally launched by Space Shuttle Discovery on April 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