Marshall Space Flight Center previous Spacelab missions were operated. The advent of the Space Shuttle made possible several major space programs in which MSFC had significant responsibilities. These were the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory. The latter three are part of NASA's series of Great Observatories; this series also includes the Spitzer Space Telescope, but this was not launched by a Space Shuttle and MSFC had no significant role in its development. A manned space station had long been in the plans of visionaries. Wernhar von Braun, in his widely read "Collier's Magazine"
Hubble Space Telescope repaired, upgraded, and replaced systems on the telescope, including all five of the main instruments. The fifth mission was initially canceled on safety grounds following the "Columbia" disaster (2003). However, after spirited public discussion, NASA administrator Mike Griffin approved the fifth servicing mission, completed in 2009. The telescope is operating , and could last until 2030–2040. Its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is scheduled for launch in March 2021. In 1923, Hermann Oberth—considered a father of modern rocketry, along with Robert H. Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky—published "" ("The Rocket into Planetary Space"), which mentioned how a telescope could