# Hubble's Second Chance: Fixing Our Favorite Space Telescope
Published: December 18, 2025
Duration: 1:48
# This is your Astronomy Tonight podcast.
Good evening, stargazers! Today we're celebrating December 18th—a date that marks one of the most dramatic moments in space exploration history.
On December 18th, 1999, the Space Shuttle Discovery thundered into orbit carrying a crucial cargo: the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and a corrective optics package for the Hubble Space Telescope. But here's where it gets really interesting—this was actually the *second* servicing mission to fix Hubble's infamous spherical aberration problem!
You see, when Hubble first launched in 1990, scientists discovered a heartbreaking flaw: the primary mirror had...
Good evening, stargazers! Today we're celebrating December 18th—a date that marks one of the most dramatic moments in space exploration history.
On December 18th, 1999, the Space Shuttle Discovery thundered into orbit carrying a crucial cargo: the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and a corrective optics package for the Hubble Space Telescope. But here's where it gets really interesting—this was actually the *second* servicing mission to fix Hubble's infamous spherical aberration problem!
You see, when Hubble first launched in 1990, scientists discovered a heartbreaking flaw: the primary mirror had...