The space shuttle and its astronauts had again restored the Hubble Space Telescope and kept it alive to produce extraordinary science. On each successive mission, they left Hubble a far better and more capable facility than what was launched in 1990.
But with the end of the shuttle program, the servicing-and-repair missions ended. Hubble would be on its own. The shuttle and the astronauts had proven the salvation of the telescope. But over and above ensuring its success, the shuttle proved its value, able to repair, service and retrieve satellites. It carried to orbit the large modules of the International Space Station and enabled their installation and the overall assembly of the station, the largest man-made structure in space.
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