It has been fifteen years since the Hubble Space Telescope was captured by a space shuttle for the last time.
Hubble's Servicing Mission 4 celebrates 15th anniversary
By the time its final servicing mission, STS-125, arrived, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) had already been in orbit for 19 years. After the 13-day mission, the HST continued to generate enormous amounts of science while suffering occasional failures.
Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched on May 11, 2009 from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A. The HST was grabbed by the shuttle's arm on May 13, 2009, setting the stage for a mission that required five spacewalks that scientists hoped would give the old thing another five years of operational life.
When Atlantis was launched, HST was morbid. The plan had been to launch in 2008, but a failure of Hubble's Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SIC&DH) unit meant a quick rejig of the payload and a move to 2009 to give engineers time to get a replacement ready for the mission. After all, it would be the last time astronauts donned gloves at the observatory.
