Hubble Space Telescope

[Archibald]

The idea of a Large Space Telescope was floated as early as 1923. But it gained momentum only from the mid-60's with Lyman Spitzer lobbying.

Go-ahead was given by NASA acting administrator George Low in spring 1971, but imediately thereafter problems arose.
The shuttle was cancelled and the idea of Hubble maintenace in orbit took a serious hit.
However manned spaceflight continued, with a more modest capsule called "Big Gemini" - a six-man Gemini with a large cargo module.
It was launched by a Titan III, and so was Hubble after shuttle cancellation.
NASA did not liked the Titan III very much, the rocket being USAF workhorse. NASA prefered the Saturn IB, but it was too expensive and production line had been shut down in 1968.

So NASA ended with the Titan III, not realising immediately that the Titan was a bargain.

Indeed back in 1961  USAF had dimensioned the whole Titan infrastructure - Martin Marietta's production line, pads, assembly buildings - for a crazy flight rate - 75 Titan III launches per year  !!!

Such huge capacity had obviously never been fully used; in fact Titan flight rate barely exceeded 7 flight per year in 1965-1975 era.

Very ironically, the USAF had achieved (in 1965) with the Titan what NASA wanted for the shuttle in the 80's - 70 flights per year. Then USAF had found they didn't need this flight rate - but that did not deterred NASA to plan 70 flight a year for the shuttle !

NASA adoption of the Titan III was a relieve for USAF and Nixon bean counters. NASA brought probes, satellites, and manned spaceflight to the Titan facilities; as a result the Titan III launch costs fell substantially.

Operation Hubble

Various options were examined for Hubble orbital maintenance without shuttle.

The obvious move was to turn Hubble into your usual satellite – the one which absolutely don't need human repairs or presence once in orbit.
So did NASa, and it proved beneficial: in 1983, while testing Hubble again and again before launch, the agency found that the main mirror was flawed. This resulted in a massive scandal delays and cost overruns, plus a return of the "orbital maintenance" concept.
As the shuttle was still a daydream (Reagan preferred the DC-X and X-30 Orient Express from SDIO and DARPA, not NASA) – Big Gemini was adapted to the Hubble servicing mission.
The cargo block was replaced by a "maintenance platform" mimicking a shuttle payload bay – but Big G could not carry the "bay" back to Earth. So it would be left onto Hubble 28.5° orbit, and stored there.

Operation Hubble happened in July 1987. For the first time NASA prepared two Titan rockets at the same time; in fact the LC-40/41 launch complexes were dimensioned to launch as much as four boosters in a row, so that was not a problem.

The first Titan, carrying Hubble,  was assembled in the various launch complex buildings and finally went to LC-40 – where the payload shroud and Hubble were stacked.

The second Titan, carrying Big Gemini, its crew, and "maintenance platform" went to LC-41.
The two boosters were launched at a three weeks interval, as the Viking and Voyager probe twins had been in September 1975 and 1977.

Hubble performed well in orbit for long years. However after 1989 and Bush 41 Space Exploration Intiative success, NASA turned to the Moon and beyond, neglecting low-Earth orbit.
The space agency simply loaned seats on ESA Solaris capsule, and stays in the Mir space stations – Mir-1 and Mir-2, the first funded by the private MirCorp; the second funded by ESA after 1995.

After 2007 Hubble was aeging, and NASA thought of desorbiting it. However loud outcry from astronomers and public led to a shift.

In the most amazing space operation ever, Hubble was moved from its 28.5° orbit to Mir-2 51.6° orbit. The difficult move was performed by a private solar-electric-propulsion tug in 14 months – electric propulsion was slow, although it burned very few propellants.

The whole "save Hubble" operation was filmed by James Cameron, which went as far as flying to Mir to film Hubble docking to the Russian space station.

Hubble did not stayed docked to Mir for a long time. Manned space stations were crammed with vibrations and trash, ruining the telescope images. That's why Hubble was moved to a higher orbit and 500 km forward of Mir-2.

Hubble finally died definitively in 2020, however the Smithonian declared it the first "space landmark" ever.

Kistler K-1 reusable rocket were outfitted as the first "space autobuses" ever, carrying a dozen of tourist to Hubble graveyard orbit.

[Archibald]

A little picture to illustrate how it might-have-been... 
(note the docking collar on Hubble rear bulkhead... heck, they plan to add such docking collar to Hubble, for Orion)

[anthonyp]

Funny you mention this.  I'm in the middle of an alternate "Space race" build fest right now, and I was going to work one of those larger-than-1/144-scale Hubbles into a space station build, serviced by 1/144 shuttles (and other space vehicles).

Like the concept, too bad no "Big Gemini" 1/144 models exist.

[Michel Van]

there was something similar
during MORL study
Boeing made proposal of Space Telescope in size of Hubble Dock on MORL.
Data return in form of Film (like in Skylab by Apollo)

Boeing study for MORL telescope
A SYSTEM STUDY OF A MANNED ORBITAL TELESOOPE
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660017399_1966017399.pdf
is 20 MB big
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660017557_1966017557.pdf
is 14 MB big

by the way Big G has size of MORL 

[Archibald]

there was something similar
during MORL study
Boeing made proposal of Space Telescope in size of Hubble Dock on MORL.
Data return in form of Film (like in Skylab by Apollo)

Boeing study for MORL telescope
A SYSTEM STUDY OF A MANNED ORBITAL TELESOOPE
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660017399_1966017399.pdf
is 20 MB big
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660017557_1966017557.pdf
is 14 MB big

by the way Big G has size of MORL 

Hello Michel, glad to see you are a member of this forum.

No Big Gemini at 1/72 scale, however Fantastic plastic has a 1/48 scale model. Bad luck, its the Saturn 'big assed" variant. However I've seen that Anigrand has made a 1/72 scale MOL, hope they will try Big G one day.

[Archibald]

Funny you mention this.  I'm in the middle of an alternate "Space race" build fest right now, and I was going to work one of those larger-than-1/144-scale Hubbles into a space station build, serviced by 1/144 shuttles (and other space vehicles).

Nice !

Don't know why my brain has switched from aircraft modelling to space alt-history some months ago. I still have a pile of aircraft models, but lost the will to build them.  I hope to cure that one day.

Or maybe I should buy some Skylab /Mir / ISS models and try merging them to create space station Liberty...