The space shuttle Discovery, with a crew of five, lifts off on the 35th mission in the shuttle program. The next day, astronaut Steven A. Hawley releases the Hubble Space Telescope, an on-orbit observatory with great scientific promise. Although the telescope gathers unprecedented images, it proves to be somewhat myopic (exhibiting a two-micron-wide spherical aberration, something less than the width of a human hair) and will have to be repaired on a 1993 shuttle flight.
New approaches to testing Space Force equipment are speeding up delivery to operators, but the service needs more testers and perhaps its own space-focused test center, officials said April 1. Those are key pieces of the fledgling force’s testing methods and future moves that will keep new technology flowing into…
