The Hubble Space Telescope

Launched in 1990 and built at a cost of $1.5 billion, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), was designed to reveal the outer reaches of the universe. In orbit, however, HST's primary mirror was found to be flawed, its vision greatly impaired.

To correct Hubble's focus, NASA consulted some of the nation's largest high technology firms. Tinsley was chosen to fabricate the critical repair optics, dubbed COSTAR. The corrective optics - sets of tiny mirrors - had to meet a surface figure tolerance of 6 nanometers and surface smoothness tolerance of 10 angstroms. Tinsley exceeded those requirements, achieving 3 nanometers and 5 angstroms (20 billionths of an inch), respectively. Tinsley delivered the mirrors on time and within budget. With these 18 coin size mirrors, a payload of 8 ounces, Hubble's enormous telescopic power reached its designed potential.

Further optical fabrication support of the HST optical train has been given in programs such as Wide Field Planetary Camera (WFC, WFC2, WFC3) , New Infrared Camera Multi-Object Spectrograph (NICMOS), Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), and Cosmic Origin Spectrograph (COS).

Tinsley's years of experience with optics used in earlier space exploration, laser fusion, micro lithography and other applications, were the basis of the company's success with the Hubble repair mission. Tinsley's experience was gained over many years of collaboration with customers who challenged the company to produce new applications and shared their technical and moral support.