Hubble Space Telescope by the time it was due to be observed. Engineering support for HST is provided by NASA and contractor personnel at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, south of the STScI. Hubble's operation is monitored 24 hours per day by four teams of flight controllers who make up Hubble's Flight Operations Team. By early 1986, the planned launch date of October that year looked feasible, but the "Challenger" accident brought the U.S. space program to a halt, grounding the Space Shuttle fleet and forcing the launch of Hubble to be postponed for several years. The telescope had to
Space Shuttle Atlantis operated as the primary research vessel for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1930 to 1966. Space Shuttle "Atlantis" lifted off on its maiden voyage on 3 October 1985, on mission STS-51-J, the second dedicated Department of Defense flight. It flew one other mission, STS-61-B, the second night launch in the shuttle program, before the Space Shuttle "Challenger" disaster temporarily grounded the Shuttle fleet in 1986. Among the five Space Shuttles flown into space, "Atlantis" conducted a subsequent mission in the shortest time after the previous mission (turnaround time) when it launched in November 1985 on STS-61-B, only 50 days