posted 04-24-2015 02:32 PM               

Holding Hubble history: Artifacts preserve telescope's 25-year legacy

The Hubble Space Telescope, launched 25 years ago, will never land in a museum.

The world's most famous astronomical observatory, which since 1990 has made more than 1.2 million observations while traveling more than 3 billion miles orbiting the Earth, lost its ride home when the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

Hubble is expected to operate for at least another 5 years. After that, NASA still needs to determine if it will launch a mission boost or "de-orbit" it – the latter destroying Hubble during a directed plunge back to the Earth over an ocean. If left solely to atmospheric drag, Hubble is now expected to re-enter the atmosphere sometime in the late 2030s.

But that doesn't mean all of Hubble's history will be lost.

Although the telescope itself won't be preserved on Earth, Hubble's legacy will live on in the artifacts from its quarter century (and more) transforming our understanding of the universe, as well as our regard for a scientific instrument.