Abstract
After nearly seven years of delays, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) finally got off the ground. With a price tag twenty times that of any other astronomical instrument, this telescope carries with it some lofty expectations. NASA's associate administrator for space science and applications, Lennard Fisk, claims, "This is the dawn of a new era in astronomy. It is a turning point of humankind's perception of itself and its place in the universe."