The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope, launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope but it is one of the largest and most versatile, well known both as a vital research tool and as a public relations boon for astronomy; the Hubble telescope is named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and is one of NASA's Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope. Hubble features a 2.4-meter mirror, its four main instruments observe in the ultraviolet and near infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to capture high-resolution images with lower background light than ground-based telescopes, it has recorded some of the most detailed visible light images. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as determining the rate of expansion of the universe; the Hubble telescope was built by the United States space agency NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency.

The Space Telescope Science Institute selects Hubble's targets and processes the resulting data, while the Goddard Space Flight Center controls the spacecraft. Space telescopes were proposed as early as 1923. Hubble was funded in the 1970s with a proposed launch in 1983, but the project was beset by technical delays, budget problems, the 1986 Challenger disaster, it was launched by Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, but its main mirror had been ground incorrectly, resulting in spherical aberration that compromised the telescope's capabilities. The optics were corrected to their intended quality by a servicing mission in 1993. Hubble is the only telescope designed to be maintained in space by astronauts. Five Space Shuttle missions have repaired and replaced systems on the telescope, including all five of the main instruments; the fifth mission was canceled on safety grounds following the Columbia disaster, but NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin approved the fifth servicing mission, completed in 2009.

The telescope is operating as of 2020, could last until 2030–2040. Its successor is the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to be launched in March 2021. In 1923, Hermann Oberth—considered a father of modern rocketry, along with Robert H. Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky—published Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen, which mentioned how a telescope could be propelled into Earth orbit by a rocket; the history of the Hubble Space Telescope can be traced back as far as 1946, to the astronomer Lyman Spitzer's paper "Astronomical advantages of an extraterrestrial observatory". In it, he discussed the two main advantages that a space-based observatory would have over ground-based telescopes. First, the angular resolution would be limited only by diffraction, rather than by the turbulence in the atmosphere, which causes stars to twinkle, known to astronomers as seeing. At that time ground-based telescopes were limited to resolutions of 0.5–1.0 arcseconds, compared to a theoretical diffraction-limited resolution of about 0.05 arcsec for a telescope with a mirror 2.5 m in diameter.

Second, a space-based telescope could observe infrared and ultraviolet light, which are absorbed by the atmosphere. Spitzer devoted much of his career to pushing for the development of a space telescope. In 1962, a report by the U. S. National Academy of Sciences recommended development of a space telescope as part of the space program, in 1965 Spitzer was appointed as head of a committee given the task of defining scientific objectives for a large space telescope. Space-based astronomy had begun on a small scale following World War II, as scientists made use of developments that had taken place in rocket technology; the first ultraviolet spectrum of the Sun was obtained in 1946, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched the Orbiting Solar Observatory to obtain UV, X-ray, gamma-ray spectra in 1962. An orbiting solar telescope was launched in 1962 by the United Kingdom as part of the Ariel space program, in 1966 NASA launched the first Orbiting Astronomical Observatory mission.

OAO-1's battery failed after three days. It was followed by OAO-2, which carried out ultraviolet observations of stars and galaxies from its launch in 1968 until 1972, well beyond its original planned lifetime of one year; the OSO and OAO missions demonstrated the important role space-based observations could play in astronomy. In 1968, NASA developed firm plans for a space-based reflecting telescope with a mirror 3 m in diameter, known provisionally as the Large Orbiting Telescope or Large Space Telescope, with a launch slated for 1979; these plans emphasized the need for crewed maintenance missions to the telescope to ensure such a costly program had a lengthy working life, the concurrent development of plans for the reusable Space Shuttle indicated that the technology to allow this was soon to become available. The continuing success of the OAO program encouraged strong consensus within the astronomical community that the LST should be a major goal. In 1970, NASA established two committees, one to plan the engineering side of the space telescope project, the other to determine the scientific goals of the mission.

Once these had been established, the next hurdle for NASA was to obtain funding for the instrument, which would be far more costly than any Earth-based telescope. The U. S. Congress questioned many aspects of the prop

"Pick Up the Pieces" is a 1974 song by the Average White Band from their second album, AWB. On the single, songwriting credit was given to founding member and saxophonist Roger Ball and guitarist Hamish Stuart individually and the entire band collectively, it is an instrumental, apart from the song's title being shouted at several points in the song. The guitar line of the song came from Hamish Stuart, while Roger Ball wrote the first part of the horn melody; the song was produced by Arif Mardin. According to Malcolm'Molly' Duncan, he had disagreed with releasing the song as a single because the song is a "funk instrumental played by Scotsmen with no lyrics other than a shout", he said about the shouts of "Pick up the pieces": "It's about picking yourself up when things aren't going well. We'd spent a lot of time making no money whatsoever, so it felt relevant." The song is an extended long version on the live Person To Person album and on the various artists album The Atlantic Family Live at Montreux.

The tenor saxophone solo on the Montreux version is by noted jazz instrumentalist Michael Brecker. The solo on the original release is by Molly Duncan; the song is in the key of F minor. "Pick Up the Pieces" was released in the United Kingdom in July 1974 but failed to chart. When the album was released in the United States in October 1974, radio stations there started to play the song, on 22 February 1975, it went to the top of the US singles chart and peaked at number five on the soul charts. Billboard ranked it as the No. 20 song for 1975. In Canada, it reached number 4 on the weekly charts, number 44 on the year-end chart. After its North American success, the song climbed to number six. "Pick Up the Pieces" made it to number eleven on the US disco chart. After the song's success, The J. B.'s recorded an answer song, "Pick Up the Pieces One By One". The single was credited to "A. A. B. B.", or "Above Average Black Band". The primary motivation for the answer song was the appropriation of the bass line to James Brown's "Hot Pants Road".

In Iron Man 2, Justin Hammer danced with this song in the scene where he was going to be introduced at the expo. Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics Entry at discogs.com

"The Love of Richard Nixon" is a song by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was released in 2004 by record label Epic as the first single from their seventh studio album and reached number two on the UK Singles Chart; the song is, according to the band, "a soundtrack to disillusion, hatred and never giving up". More the song is a sympathetic appraisal of former US president Richard Nixon and mentions some of his positive achievements overshadowed by the Watergate Scandal; the timing of the single's release, two weeks before George W. Bush's victory at the 2004 US presidential elections, can be seen as a statement by the band concerning the reputation of the USA's leadership at the time. In an interview with Repeat Fanzine, the band said it represents how they feel in comparison to Radiohead. Nicky in particular commented that they feel like Richard Nixon compared to Radiohead's John F. Kennedy: "'If Radiohead are Kennedy Manic Street Preachers are Nixon: the ugly duckling who had to try 10 times harder than anyone else.

Paranoid megalomaniacs.'"The sound is more electronic than most of their previous hits, indicative of a slight switch in sound on Lifeblood. "The Love of Richard Nixon" was released on 18 October 2004 by record label Epic as the first single from the band's seventh studio album, Lifebood. It reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, number 15 on the Spanish Singles Chart and number 17 on the Irish Singles Chart. CD single 1 "The Love of Richard Nixon" – 3:38 "Everyone Knows/Nobody Cares" – 4:12CD single 2 "The Love of Richard Nixon" – 3:38 "Everything Will Be" – 5:08 "Askew Road" – 2:58 "The Love of Richard Nixon" DVD "The Love of Richard Nixon" Quarantine – 3:50 "Voodoo Polaroids" – 3:55 NME article on the song