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On this day in 1968 – May 17th – the first ESRO satellite was successfully launched.

The European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) was a precursor to the European Space Agency (ESA). ESRO-2B was the first mission controlled by teams at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. It was mainly intended to study X-ray and particle emissions from the Sun.

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On this day in 1974 – May 17th – NASA launched the first ever geostationary satellite.

SMS-1 (Synchronous Meteorological Satellite) was the first satellite in the first series of geostationary meteorological satellites. (A geostationary satellite is in an orbit that keeps it above the same part of the Earth all of the time.)

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On this day in 1711 – May 18th – astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, polymath and Jesuit priest, Roger Joseph Boscovich was born in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) in modern-day Croatia.

Boskovich wrote on a wide range of astronomical topics, including the Aurora Borealis, transits of Mercury, and the theory of the telescope. Among other accomplishments, he solved the problem of locating the Sun's equator, observed sunspots to determine the rotation period of the Sun, and discovered the absence of an atmosphere on the Moon.

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On this day in 1991 – May 18th – British cosmonaut Helen Sharman was launched into space on board a Soyuz spacecraft.

Sharman the first Briton and first Western European woman in space. With crew mates Anatoli Artsebarsky and Sergei Krikalev, she orbited Earth for two days before docking with the Mir space station.

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On this day in 2009 – May 18th – the final spacewalk to service the Hubble Space Telescope took place.

The servicing mission was carried out in mission STS-125 aboard Atlantis. There were five spacewalks altogether, the final one carried out by astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel.

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On this day in 1825 – May 20th – American astronomer George Phillips Bond was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

He succeeded his father, William Cranch Bond, as director of Harvard College Observatory. And he is considered by many to be the father of astrophotography, his achievements including taking the first photograph of a star (Vega in 1850), and of the double star Alcor and Mizar in Ursa Major in 1857. He also discovered several comets and carried out studies of Saturn and the Orion Nebula.

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On this day in 1990 – May 20th – the Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first image, that of several stars captured with its Wide Field/Planetary Camera.

Unfortunately, it was then discovered that there was a flaw in the main mirror which meant fuzzy images for three years until the first shuttle servicing mission. Interestingly, the images were still much better than the ones from ground-based telescopes of the time.

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Originally Posted by Mona - Astronomy
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On this day in 1990 – May 20th – the Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first image, that of several stars captured with its Wide Field/Planetary Camera.

Unfortunately, it was then discovered that there was a flaw in the main mirror which meant fuzzy images for three years until the first shuttle servicing mission. Interestingly, the images were still much better than the ones from ground-based telescopes of the time.


Do you think it was because they were taken outside the Earth's atmosphere?

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Angie, fortunately the Hubble mirror problem wasn't taking it outside the atmosphere. I say "fortunately" because just think of the problems for future space telescopes! It was actually a tiny error that occurred when the mirror was polished. NASA's budget didn't stretch to testing the mirror before launch. The backup mirror turned out to be flawless and is now in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

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On this day in 2010 – May 21st – the Japanese experimental aircraft IKAROS was launched.

IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) is the first spacecraft to successfully demonstrate solar sail technology in interplanetary space.

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