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Goodrich is proud to play so many roles critical to the Hubble
Space Telescope (HST). Early on, Goodrich produced, for Hubble,
the 2.4 meter Primary Mirror, the Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS),
and the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) - a 5 meter long, 110 Kg
metering structure that is the largest precision composite
structure in space. Today, Goodrich continues to supply our
extensive expertise to this important NASA program by playing a
crucial role in the HST servicing missions.
Our Fine Guidance Sensors have been refurbished during two highly
successful HST servicing missions by the space shuttles. The FGSs
provide Hubble with an ultra-fine guidance system. These sensors
allow Hubble to accurately point at celestial objects for
extremely long periods of time. In fact, as an example of
Hubble’s precision, if the telescope was positioned in Washington DC,
it could find and lock onto a firefly in Tokyo. Pointing stability
is maintained to 0.008 arc-seconds for periods of up to 24 hours.
The Hubble Space Telescope, part of NASA's Great Observatories
Program, has captured over 14,000 images of the Universe,
allowing us to see stars exploding, galaxies colliding, planets
forming, and spectacular wonders that occur throughout our
dynamic, evolving, ever mysterious Universe. Hubble observations
in the near future will coincide with those of the Chandra X-ray
Observatory and Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)
providing simultaneous multi-wavelength coverage of intriguing
astronomical objects and events.
Additional information about the Hubble can be found at
www.stsci.edu and
hubblesite.org.
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