Physics Hubble Telescope
Launched into lower earth orbit in 1990
Not the first telescope but the largest and most versatile
Helped scientists understand how planets and galaxies form and observe comets and planets
Also helped them learn about explosions that happen when huge stars burn
out
Its about the size of a large school bus and weighs around 24,500 pounds
It gathers energy from the sun using two 25-foot solar panels
Orbits at speed of 17,000 miles an hour, travels about 5 miles a second and takes 15 minutes to rotate 90 degrees
It has observed locations more than 13.4 billion light years away
At first the photos it produced were blurry and only 50% sharper than a Chinese telescope, so three years later, engineers were able to fixed its blurry eyesight
It cost around $1.5 billion not including ongoing costs that can be both expected and unexpected.