April 24

What happened on April 24 in aviation and space history.

• April 24, 1990

  Deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope (STS-31)

  Space launch — On 24 April 1990 the orbiter Discovery lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on mission STS-31. Its primary purpose was to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope into low Earth orbit, an instrument named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and one of NASA's Great Observatories. It was the 35th mission of the Space Shuttle programme and the tenth flight of Discovery.