The idea of a space-based telescope dates back to a proposal by R. S. Richardson in a 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, but Richardson thought the moon would be a suitable venue. The U.S. proposal to put a telescope in orbit around the earth was made by Lyman Spitzer in "Astronomical Advantages of an Extra-Terrestrial Observatory," a paper written for a project for the Rand Corporation in 1946. In 1958, after a call for proposals by the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Sciences Working Group began developing proposals for orbiting astronomical observatories. The idea of an orbiting observatory received support at the highest government levels on the basis of arguments for national prestige, which was in need of shoring up after the launch of Sputnik I in 1956 by the Soviet Union.

Project Development

In 1960 and...