50 Years to NASA Mirror Technology Development: From Hubble to JWST and Beyond

Presidential Vision "… both optical and radio astronomy … new fields of interest have been uncoverednotably in the high energy x-ray and gamma-ray regions.Astronomy is advancing rapidly at present, partly with the aid of observations from space, and a deeper understanding of the nature and structure of the Universe is emerging … Astronomy has a far greater potential for advancement by the space program than any other branch of physics".OAO-C (Copernicus) OAO-C had two Science Experiments Princeton Experiment Package was a UV Spectrometer 81 cm Cassegrain telescope Built by Perkin-Elmer for Princeton Fine Guider achieved 0.1 arc-sec pointing London Experiment X-Ray Package 3 small x-ray telescopes 5.5 cm2 for 3 to 9 Angstroms 12 cm2 for 6 to 18 Angstroms 23 cm2 for > 44 Angstroms Deep parabolic grazing incidence mirrors "first" piggy-back experiment "first" x-ray telescopes in space?Optical Technology Experiment System (OTES), PE, 1967 Large Telescope Experiment Program (LTEP), PE 1969 "Large Telescope Experiment Program (LTEP)", Perkin-Elmer, Aug 1969 Large Telescope Experiment Program (LTEP)Funded by the NASA Apollo Application Office NASA is seriously searching out meaningful goals for after the most successful Saturn-Apollo missions to the lunar surface.The new science and technologies of space labs and solar observatories are in the immediate future.Data … are critical for settling major questions in cosmology:is the Universe infinite or not."