Space telescope Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched on April 24, 1990 by the Space Shuttle "Discovery" (STS-31). Performing astronomy from ground-based observatories on Earth is limited by the filtering and distortion of electromagnetic radiation (scintillation or twinkling) due to the atmosphere. Some terrestrial telescopes can reduce atmospheric effects with adaptive optics. A telescope orbiting Earth outside the atmosphere is subject neither to twinkling nor to light pollution from artificial light sources on Earth. As a result, the angular resolution of space telescopes is often much smaller than a ground-based telescope with a similar aperture. Space-based astronomy is even more important for
Space Shuttle made Space Shuttle thermal protection system tiles available to schools and universities for less than US$25 each. About 7,000 tiles were available on a first-come, first-served basis, limited to one per institution. On April 12, 2011, NASA announced selection of locations for the remaining Shuttle orbiters: In August 2011, the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a "Review of NASA's Selection of Display Locations for the Space Shuttle Orbiters"; the review had four main findings: The NASA OIG had three recommendations, saying NASA should: In September 2011, the CEO and two board members of Seattle's Museum of Flight met