The eagerly anticipated but much delayed launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in April 1990 marked the start of astronomy's largest ‘big science’ project to date. As was widely reported in the media, the first images taken with the observatory revealed that a serious manufacturing error had been made when the 2·4 m primary mirror of the telescope was ground and polished some 10 years earlier. The project scientist for the European Space Agency's involvement in the project recalls some of the events leading up to this discovery, describes the current scientific performance of the observatory and outlines current plans for repairing the telescope.
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