The Hubble telescope hits 20-year milestone in space

On Saturday, the Hubble Space Telescope will hit the two-decade mark aloft. On April 24, 1990, NASA launched the space observatory aboard the space shuttle Discovery and since then the telescope has been quite prolific.

The Hubble has returned thousands of photos and impacted astronomical research. Perhaps more notable has been the Hubble repairs over the years. The Hubble has had broken equipment, mirror problems and servicing issues over the years. NASA scientists, engineers and astronauts have conducted multiple repairs along the way.

Through it all the Hubble has delivered the goods. NASA is celebrating the Hubble's space birthday with a bevy of online activities that are listed here. In the meantime, be sure to check out NASA's overview of the last 20 years of the Hubble where you'll find a bevy of images like this one:

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com