The Hubble Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 - Eric Long/NASM

The camera that saved the Hubble Space Telescope is back on earth, and on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum after 15 years in orbit creating the amazing array of space images that have wow’ed us for all those years.

You may recall the embarrassing mistake that hobbled the original Hubble telescope device, in 1990, when engineers failed to test and correct a flaw in the telescope’s mirror. The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 was sent in like the cavalry to save the day, in 1993, and it did so, fabulously.

It was returned to earth in May 2009 after being replaced by space walking astronauts.

The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum along with the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR)

NPR radio did a nice piece on it, click for the text article:  “Camera That Saved Hubble Now On Display”.

Listen to the All Things Considered podcast.

The camera will be on display in the museum’s Space Hall through mid-December 2009, and then will travel to different venues (sorry, I wasn’t able to verify this at the time of posting) before returning permanently to the Smithsonian in March 2010.

Fly high little telescope!