STS-103

This week in 1999, space shuttle Discovery, mission STS-103, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on the third Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Over the course of three planned extravehicular activities, the STS-103 crew restored Hubble to working order and upgraded some of its systems, allowing the then decade-old observatory to get ready to begin its second scheduled decade of astronomical observations. Hubble was released from Discovery’s cargo bay Dec. 24. Here, astronauts Michael Foale and Claude Nicollier install a Fine Guidance Sensor into a protective enclosure in the shuttle’s payload bay. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities…