The Hubble Space Telescope project encountered significant problems including cost overruns, scheduling issues, and technical errors in construction. Specifically, the primary mirror of the telescope was polished incorrectly, resulting in blurred images. An investigation found that Perkin-Elmer, the contractor responsible for the mirror, failed to conduct proper end-to-end testing. Additionally, NASA underestimated the technical challenges and pushed unrealistic deadlines in an effort to control costs and secure continued funding for the project.

1. What went wrong with the Hubble project?
Taken from : https://static.euronews.com/articles/369062/684x384_369062.jpg

2. • The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was carried into orbit on Space Shuttle Discovery on April
24, 1990.
• Three days later, it was determined that the telescope failed to focus correctly.
• Errors in the polishing of the primary mirror were eventually traced back to Perkin-Elmer, the
designers of the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA).
• Besides the problems with the primary mirror there were significant cost overruns (463%), a
failure to understand the total system testing requirements and a less than harmonious
environment between the participating space centers and the major contractors.
What went wrong?

3. • Organizations deal with uncertainties :
• Money, time and work
• Washers in the null corrector
• Little scope for spontaneity and initiative.
• Involvement of client
What went wrong?

4. “
Second thoughts and double checking were luxuries this program
could not afford.
”
Cost Estimation
• In 1977, Congress funded a 200 million dollar Large Space Telescope which was later named the Hubble
Space Telescope after Dr. Edwin P. Hubble.
When the Hubble was finally launched in 1990 it had cost 1.5 billion dollars.

5. Why a Lowball bid was taken?
“
The trouble was, NASA designed the schedule and the funding for the
program as though space mirrors this smooth were built all the time.
”
• Perkin-Elmer desperately wanted the business and the reputation it would gain by building the telescope.
• Partnership in deception :
Perkin-Elmer “had to lie to get the contract. NASA had to lie to get the money.”

6. Why a Lowball bid was taken?
“
The trouble was, NASA designed the schedule and the funding for the
program as though space mirrors this smooth were built all the time.
”
Marshall was aware that Perkin-Elmer did not include end-to-end testing which the other
contractors bid. This lack of end-to-end testing was a gross oversight and ultimately enabled the
failure.

7. Management
“
Rigby tried to be forthright about the time he would need to do the work,
but whenever he sent a schedule to management it was cut in half before
it even reached NASA
”• Perhaps with fatigue (hard work), Geissler punched the wrong numbers into the computer, hitting 1.0 instead of 0.1.
• In a bid to save money and to make the telescope and the space shuttle more attractive to Congress, NASA was
packaging the two programs.
In 1975, NASA decided the diameter of the telescope mirror would have to shrink from ten feet to eight feet to save
money and to make the telescope fit into the shuttle’s cargo compartment. That would cut by one-third the amount
of light captured by the telescope, reducing its ability’ to study faint objects.

8. To do it right or to be on time?
“
The technicians grabbed three household washers (usually sold for just 20
cents). They flattened the washers and put them into the $1 million null
corrector.
”
• It turns out that the mirror is not the only problem. Solar Power Arrays manufactured by the European Space Agency
shake everytime the telescope passes from sunlight to darkness.

9. Motivation (cont..)
The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) was selected over the Goddard Space Flight Center
(GSFC) to manage the Hubble Space Telescope.
Clearly, GSFC had more scientific expertise but MSFC had a large idle staff. There was a threat
of cutbacks within NASA and MSFC really wanted the program.
Source : http://people.tamu.edu/~v-buenger/658/Hubble.pdf

10. Testing and Risk Management
Marshall was aware that Perkin-Elmer did not include end-to-end testing which the other
contractors bid.
This lack of end-to-end testing was a gross oversight and ultimately enabled the failure.
Source : http://people.tamu.edu/~v-buenger/658/Hubble.pdf

11. Should have managed the Hubble as a totally new systems regardless of
previous systems.
It was truly “New to the World” and very important to the study of the universe. For
years, scientists had dreamed of a space based telescope like Hubble and Marshall
should have managed the project as a Breakthrough. This would have helped ensure
that all systems would have received proper attention.

12. Source : http://www.afit.edu/cse/casedocs/files/Hubble%20SE%20Case%20Study.pdf

13. Both the Hubble and the Challenger suffered technical failures which drew national and
international attention.
“
The trouble was, NASA designed the schedule and the funding
for the program as though space mirrors this smooth were
built all the time.
”
Without appropriate test and development time, the program can actually cost more in
terms of dollars and human lives due to redesigns and loss of hardware. It is always better
to build it right in the first place and test before it is flown.
CONCLUSION

14. Hubble Facts
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was launched April 24, 1990, on the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.
•Hubble has made more than 1.3 million observations since its mission began in 1990.
•Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 14,000 scientific papers, making it one of the most productive scientific
instruments ever built.
•Hubble does not travel to stars, planets or galaxies. It takes pictures of them as it whirls around Earth at about 17,000 mph.
•Hubble has traveled more than 4 billion miles along a circular low Earth orbit currently about 340 miles in altitude.
•Hubble has no thrusters. To change pointing angles, it uses Newton’s third law by spinning its wheels in the opposite direction. It turns at
about the speed of a minute hand on a clock, taking 15 minutes to turn 90 degrees.
•Outside the haze of our atmosphere, Hubble can see astronomical objects with an angular size of 0.05 arc seconds, which is like seeing
a pair of fireflies in Tokyo from your home in Maryland.
•Hubble has peered back into the very distant past, to locations more than 13.4 billion light years from Earth.
•The Hubble archive contains more than 140 terabytes, and Hubble science data processing generates about 10 terabytes of new archive
data per year.
•Hubble weighed about 24,000 pounds at launch and currently weighs about 27,000 pounds following the final servicing mission in 2009
– on the order of two full-grown African elephants.
•Hubble is 13.3 meters (43.5 feet) long -- the length of a large school bus.