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"
Space telescope Space telescope A space telescope or space observatory is an instrument located in outer space to observe distant planets, galaxies and other astronomical objects. Space telescopes avoid many of the problems of ground-based observatories, such as light pollution and distortion of electromagnetic radiation (scintillation). In addition, ultraviolet frequencies, X-rays and gamma rays are blocked by the Earth's atmosphere, so they can only be observed from space. Theorized by Lyman Spitzer in 1946, the first operational space telescopes were the American Orbiting Astronomical Observatory OAO-2 launched in 1968 and the Soviet Orion 1 ultraviolet telescope aboard space station Salyut 1 in