Hubble Space Telescope very narrow field—Lucky Cam, for example, produces crisp images just 10" to 20" wide, whereas Hubble's cameras produce crisp images across a 2½' (150") field. Furthermore, space telescopes can study the universe across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, most of which is blocked by Earth's atmosphere. Finally, the background sky is darker in space than on the ground, because air absorbs solar energy during the day and then releases it at night, producing a faint—but nevertheless discernible—airglow that washes out low-contrast astronomical objects. Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth
Space Shuttle program launched on September 29, 1988. The longest Shuttle mission was STS-80 lasting 17 days, 15 hours. The final flight of the Space Shuttle program was STS-135 on July 8, 2011. Since the Shuttle's retirement in 2011, many of its original duties are performed by an assortment of government and private vessels. The European ATV Automated Transfer Vehicle supplied the ISS between 2008 and 2015. Classified military missions are being flown by the US Air Force's unmanned space plane, the X-37B. By 2012, cargo to the International Space Station was already being delivered commercially under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services by SpaceX's