SpaceSpace History
Hubble launched with a mirror polished to within a fraction of a wavelength of the wrong shape.
The testing instrument that guided the polishing had one lens sitting about 1.3 mm out of position.
Source
This fact is written from the English Wikipedia article it links to, so you can check every word in one tap. Fact Drop rates that source 4 out of 5 for credibility, and the rating travels with the fact on the back of its card in the app.
More space facts
Space facts are where the numbers stop making sense. A total eclipse only works because the Sun is 400 times wider than the Moon and 400 times further away. Venus spins backwards, some of the static on an old TV was the Big Bang, and almost all of the universe is missing. Every fact here links to its source.
- The cover of the Voyager Golden Record carries a patch of electroplated uranium-238.
- There is a sports car orbiting the Sun.
- Apollo 12 was struck by lightning 36 seconds after liftoff, then again 16 seconds later.
- NASA's Genesis capsule hit the Utah desert at around 300 km/h in 2004 because its deceleration sensors were installed backwards, so the parachute never fired.
- Voyager 1 still stores data on an eight-track digital tape recorder.
- William Herschel named the planet he discovered in 1781 after his king: George's Star.