4. Once in human history

Hubble needs saving. Nasa risks everything on a daring and unprecedented rescue mission to restore Hubble’s vision. The most experienced flight crew ever assembled is sent on a mission like no other in history. Astronauts including Kathy Thornton and Tom Akers will spend days working in the vacuum of space, carrying out delicate repairs hundreds of miles above Earth. There is no room for error. In the cargo bay of Space Shuttle Endeavour are the instruments that could save Hubble and allow the telescope to fulfil its promise.

One wrong move could destroy the telescope for good. Failure could spell the end of Nasa. Back on earth, Hubble's Chief Scientist Ed Weiler waits to receive the latest pictures sent from space- but will they finally reveal the secrets of the universe?

Keep listening at the end to hear news about the next season of 13 Minutes, the space podcast from the BBC World Service.

Archive: Mission audio and oral histories, Nasa History Office

Episode image: Astronaut Kathryn C. Thornton lifts the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) prior to its installation on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 1993. Credit: Nasa

Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg, and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music.

13 Minutes: Trouble with Hubble is a BBC Audio Science Unit production for the BBC World Service.

Presenter: Dame Dr Maggie Aderin
Series producer: Harrison Lewis
Sound design: Tony Churnside
Series editor: Ilan Goodman
Senior commissioning producer: Katy Davis
Commissioning editor: Jon Manel