JOPLIN, Mo. — After traveling millions of miles, four items built by a Joplin business are back home.
Along the way, they’ve played a role in taking thousands of “out of this world” pictures.
The Hubble Space Telescope, named after astronomer and Marshfield Missouri native Edwin Hubble, has been taking photos of the cosmos since it was launched in 1990.
It draws its power from its solar array when it’s in direct sunlight.
When it’s behind the earth, and in total darkness, it’s running off of rechargeable nickel-hydrogen batteries built right here in Joplin. But for that project Eagle Picher had to build four modules, two of which went inside the spacecraft. The other two were tested prior to launching.
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These two modules actually make it onto the telescope, while two…