13 Minutes: Trouble with Hubble - Trouble with Hubble: 2. The eye opens

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High above the Earth, the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery race against the clock to lift the Hubble Space Telescope from its storage bay and give it a new home in orbit. They have just eight hours to release the telescope and deploy its solar panels, giving Hubble the power it needs to begin its mission.

If they fail, Hubble will be left drifting in space, a useless, $1.6 billion telescope, another devastating new setback for Nasa.

Featuring interviews with astronauts Kathy Sullivan and Steve Hawley.

Episode image: The Hubble Space Telescope being deployed on April 25, 1990. Credit: Nasa

Archive:
Mission audio and oral histories, Nasa History Office

Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg, and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.

13 Minutes: Trouble with Hubble is a BBC Audio Science Unit production for the BBC World Service.

Presenter: Dame Dr Maggie Aderin

Series producer: Harrison Lewis

Sound design: Tony Churnside

Series editor: Ilan Goodman

Senior commissioning producer: Katy Davis

Commissioning editor: Jon Manel

Published on Monday, 12th October 2026.

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