00:00:07.501,00:00:09.234
-Around the country, the various
elements of the space telescope

00:00:09.234,00:00:11.434
are being worked on
and assembled.

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At the PerkinElmer plant
in Connecticut,

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the 92-inch telescope mirror has
been finely buffed and polished.

00:00:18.133,00:00:20.400
A wide-field camera
is being built and tested

00:00:20.400,00:00:23.701
at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena.

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These mock-ups of
the space telescope's parts

00:00:25.968,00:00:27.901
give an idea of its size.

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It's here at the Lockheed plant
in Sunnyvale, California,

00:00:30.868,00:00:32.968
that it will be assembled.

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At the Marshall Space
Flight Center in Alabama,

00:00:35.167,00:00:38.000
astronauts practice working
around the space telescope

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in a tank filled
with water

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to simulate the gravity-free
space environment.

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The space telescope will be
placed into orbit

00:00:45.234,00:00:48.234
from the shuttle
payload bay in 1985.

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It's designed to be an
international observatory

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located in space for
the study of the universe,

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and is expected
to provide new advances

00:00:55.400,00:00:57.434
in astronomy and physics.

00:01:01.367,00:01:04.901
-As far as the scientific
implication of the telescope,

00:01:04.901,00:01:08.467
I think it will
be immense.

00:01:08.467,00:01:12.100
It will be the most powerful
single instrument for astronomy

00:01:12.100,00:01:16.234
in the optical area
that has been realized

00:01:16.234,00:01:22.067
since the completion of the
Mount Palomar Telescope in 1948.

00:01:22.067,00:01:30.400
It will show and allow us
to study objects in all areas,

00:01:30.400,00:01:32.167
of interest to all areas
of astronomy,

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with much greater
sensitivity and accuracy.

00:01:35.734,00:01:38.100
And I'll just give you
two examples.

00:01:38.100,00:01:40.167
I think that one
fundamental contribution

00:01:40.167,00:01:45.067
will be in the area
of planetary systems,

00:01:45.067,00:01:46.901
in particular,
the existence of planetary

00:01:46.901,00:01:50.033
systems around
other stars.

00:01:50.033,00:01:54.200
And this can be done in several
ways from space telescope.

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It's not assured
that we will find them.

00:01:55.868,00:01:57.234
They might not exist.

00:01:57.234,00:02:00.834
We only know about
our own solar system.

00:02:00.834,00:02:05.434
But if they do exist, we should
be able to detect them.

00:02:05.434,00:02:10.033
The reason why the space
telescope sounds [Indistinct]

00:02:10.033,00:02:13.868
is to make sure that this
information is available

00:02:13.868,00:02:16.567
to scientists
everywhere in the world.

00:02:16.567,00:02:19.400
The project itself
is international,

00:02:19.400,00:02:22.067
being, as you know,
a contribution between

00:02:22.067,00:02:24.701
the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration

00:02:24.701,00:02:27.667
and the European
Space Agency.

00:02:27.667,00:02:31.734
The staff of the institute
is international,

00:02:31.734,00:02:34.734
and the opportunity
for observations,

00:02:34.734,00:02:36.234
to propose observations,

00:02:36.234,00:02:42.367
will be open to astronomers
over the entire world,

00:02:42.367,00:02:45.400
even beyond the United States
and Europe.

00:02:48.067,00:02:51.534
Well, I think there was
a very substantial

00:02:51.534,00:02:52.667
technical development

00:02:52.667,00:02:54.601
which occurred successfully
in the area

00:02:54.601,00:02:56.901
of the the Sicily
camera development.

00:02:56.901,00:02:59.501
And that was a major
accomplishment, I think.

00:02:59.501,00:03:02.334
The area which still
gives some concern

00:03:02.334,00:03:07.100
is in the very accurate
fine-guidance sensors

00:03:07.100,00:03:11.033
which are required to guide
and lock the telescope itself

00:03:11.033,00:03:14.334
on specific objects.

00:03:14.334,00:03:17.133
The telescope has
a very high resolution --

00:03:17.133,00:03:20.701
10 times the resolution
of any telescope on the ground,

00:03:20.701,00:03:24.634
a tenth of a nanosecond
rather than 1 nanosecond.

00:03:24.634,00:03:27.234
And the required point
in accuracy is very high,

00:03:27.234,00:03:28.767
and has been
defined to be

00:03:28.767,00:03:31.901
something like
10 million nanoseconds.

00:03:31.901,00:03:35.167
To achieve that
accuracy requires

00:03:35.167,00:03:38.100
very sophisticated sensors,

00:03:38.100,00:03:41.000
and there have been
some technical problems

00:03:41.000,00:03:42.701
in achieving that.