Illustration of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The HST is an astronomical satellite in orbit around Earth. It observes stars, galaxies and other astronomical objects in wide ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum from infrared and ultraviolet to visible light. The HST is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), and is one of NASA's Great Observatories. Named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble, it was launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990, and orbits at a height of around 600 kilometres.