Celebrating 35 years of the Hubble Space Telescope

In April 2025, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope will celebrate 35 years since its launch.

During the 1970s, NASA and ESA began planning for a space telescope that could transcend the blurring effects of the atmosphere and take clearer images of the Universe than ever before. In 1990 the idea finally became a reality and, despite a flaw in the main mirror which was quite swiftly corrected, Hubble has since far exceeded expectations.

It has delved deeper into the early years of the Universe than was ever thought possible, played a critical part in the discovery that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating and probed the atmospheres of planets around distant stars.

To celebrate these 35 years of success and impact in engineering, science and culture ESA/Hubble will run a series of initiatives to involve the public in the celebrations. These updates are posted below.

ann2501 — Announcement

Hubble’s 35th anniversary public celebrations in Europe

29 January 2025: In April 2025, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope will be celebrating its 35th anniversary. To celebrate how the Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the Universe, ESA/Hubble invited proposals from organisations, institutions, and groups across Europe to maximise the reach and impact of this milestone with special events.

ann2501 — Announcement

Announcement of the ESA/Hubble 35th anniversary calendar

27 January 2025: On 24 April 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was sent into orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery as the first space telescope of its kind. An incredible 35 years later, Hubble is more active and productive than ever. Each year of its mission has been marked by a breathtaking image newly released for the occasion.

ann2403 — Announcement

Announcement of the 2025 ESA/Hubble/Webb Calendar

12 December 2024: To celebrate another year of exciting images and discoveries from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, ESA/Hubble and ESA/Webb have released a new calendar for 2025 that showcases beautiful imagery from both missions.

ann2402 — Announcement

Celebrate Hubble’s 35th anniversary with ESA/Hubble!

18 October 2024: In April 2025, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope will be celebrating its 35th anniversary.
Since its launch in 1990 Hubble has made 1.6 million observations of over 53 000 astronomical objects. To date, the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland holds 184 terabytes of processed data that are science-ready for use by astronomers around the world to use for research and analysis.