Q 01/05

In which year was the Hubble Space Telescope launched?

A) 1993

B) 1996

C) 1990

D) 1998

Answer · why

C) 1990

It went up on Space Shuttle Discovery on 24 April, seven years later than originally intended.

Q 02/05

Which Space Shuttle carried Hubble into orbit on mission STS-31?

A) Discovery

B) Atlantis

C) Endeavour

D) Columbia

Answer · why

A) Discovery

The mission had to wait for shuttle flights to resume after the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Q 03/05

What is the diameter of Hubble's primary mirror?

A) 1.5 metres

B) 3 metres

C) 6.5 metres

D) 2.4 metres

Answer · why

D) 2.4 metres

The 3-metre design was shrunk to save money; the mirror was polished to an accuracy of 10 nanometres.

Q 04/05

What flaw did Hubble turn out to have when it reached orbit in 1990?

A) Its solar panels failed to open

B) Its mirror had been ground to a bad shape

C) Its main computer kept crashing

D) It was placed in a useless orbit

Answer · why

B) Its mirror had been ground to a bad shape

The spherical aberration was traced to a mis-assembled testing device called a null corrector at Perkin-Elmer.

Q 05/05

Which company built Hubble's flawed optical telescope assembly?

A) Eastman Kodak

B) Perkin-Elmer

C) Lockheed Martin

D) Corning Glass

Answer · why

B) Perkin-Elmer

NASA had made it subcontract a back-up mirror to Kodak, which was never launched and now sits in the National Air and Space Museum.