This photograph shows the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) flight article assembly with multilayer insulation, high-gain antenna, and solar arrays in a clean room of the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company.

Hubble was the first of NASA's great observatories and the most complex and sensitive optical telescope ever made. The purpose of Hubble is to study the cosmos from a low Earth orbit by placing the telescope in space, enabling astronomers to collect data that is free of Earth's atmosphere. Hubble was deployed from the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-31 mission) into Earth orbit in April 1990.

The Marshall Space Flight Center had overall responsibility for design, development, and construction of the observatory. The Perkin-Elmer Corporation in Danbury, Connecticut, developed the optical system and guidance sensors. The Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, Sunnyvale, California, produced the protective outer shroud and spacecraft systems, and assembled and tested the finished telescope.