Astronaut Story Musgrave, a mission specialist on the first servicing mission, also helped with the training to make sure the procedures and equipment worked properly. For this mission, NASA selected a highly experienced astronaut crew. Astronaut Gregory Harbaugh was a back-up crewperson and Pilot Kenneth Bowersox flew as pilot during the first servicing mission. Astronaut Steven Hawley, who operated the Shuttle's 50-foot robot arm during the mission, flew the Hubble deployment mission in 1990. If all the events in the history of the universe until now were squeezed into 24 hours, Earth wouldn't form until late afternoon and humans would have existed for only two seconds.
Astronomers believe some twenty thousand billion billion stars exist in the universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope whirls around Earth at a speed of 5 miles per second. Each day, the Hubble Space Telescope collects enough data to fill an encyclopedia. Images and data collected by the telescope travel 90,000 miles over satellite and ground links before they reach the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Engineers designed Hubble with servicing in mind. The telescope is equipped with 31 foot restraints and 225 ft. of handrails.