Read an in-depth article about how STScI directors work with the astronomical community to develop Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) programs to push scientific boundaries and enable consequential investigations with both Hubble and Webb.
Contribute to Hubble’s future scientific portfolio by submitting white papers by May 22. Community white papers will help develop a roadmap for the programmatic, operational, and scientific future of Hubble through the 2030s.
Read about the community’s overwhelmingly positive response to the call for white papers to support Hubble science in the 2030s, the formation of a new working group, and a new opportunity to submit short science pitches highlighting key Hubble science.
Join upcoming conferences, workshops, symposia, and other astronomy community events, including Language AI in the Space Sciences and Science with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, organized by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Links and recordings to recent events are included.
Hubble's COS is the most sensitive UV spectrograph ever flown. New strategies are continuously being developed to keep the FUV channel operating into the 2030s and beyond. Recent innovations include lifetime position placement based on updated gain-flagging methodologies and dynamic flight software patching.
Hubble’s Space Telescope Users Committee (STUC) met virtually in December 2025. Topics included mission and instrument statuses, updates about the budget, and science-ready products and tools. Of special note was the very high probability that Hubble will continue to generate unique, impactful science into the 2030s. The STUC will deliver a full report with recommendations based on the information presented.
Introducing “Hands-on Hubble,” a four-part video tutorial series that guides users step-by-step through the fundamentals of using WFC3 data, navigating the HST Jupyter Notebooks Repository, running DrizzlePac, and creating PSF models.
In the second half of 2025, STScI staff supported Hubble, Webb, Roman, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, and MAST to enable research. We also continued to produce products that communicate these missions’ scientific discoveries. Find opportunities to collaborate or request support, and learn more about how we cover scientific discoveries.
Hubble Wide-Field Slitless Spectroscopy (WFSS) observations remain a key capability for low-resolution spectroscopy of all sources in a field. Slitlessutils version 2.0 is a Python package that replaces aXe for spectral reduction, using a full-forward-modeling approach to simulate WFSS images and extract spectra from Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) observations.
STScI recently completed the proposal review and telescope allocation process for JWST Cycle 5. The worldwide astronomical community engaged in an unprecedented brainstorm, setting a new record for proposals received in response to any Call for Proposals by a major observatory. Here, we summarize the review process and the results and offer pointers for Cycle 6 applicants.
Read about “Enriching the Universe,” an ESA conference about science with Hubble and Webb held in Vienna, Austria, in April that brought together over 100 participants from 19 countries and more joining online.
Hubble's SI C&DH routes commands and data to the science instruments, with two redundant electronics sides providing hardware backup. A 2021 fault in Side B left Hubble one failure away from ceasing science operations. The B-Side Operations (BSO) solution restores full redundancy.
Hubble's FGSs provide the pointing stability that underpins virtually all its science. Starting in Cycle 34, qualifying ACS/WFC and WFC3 imaging observations will default to single guide star (1GS) guiding. Comprehensive testing confirms no perceptible impact on image quality, while reducing mechanical wear on the FGSs, improving observing success rates, and adding scheduling flexibility — extending FGS lifetime into the 2030s.
Hubble’s Space Telescope Users Committee (STUC) met in April 2026, discussing mission and instrument statuses, updates about the budget, and science-ready products and tools. The STUC will deliver a full report with recommendations based on the information presented.
Join STScI at the 248th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Pasadena, California, June 14 to 18, 2026. Throughout the week, members of STScI will be involved in a wide variety of science and technical presentations, press conferences, and more.
Please contact the HST Help Desk with any questions.