When the first images returned from the Hubble Space Telescope showed a heartbreaking blur, engineers and astronauts resolved to operate in the vacuum of space. On 2 December 1993, at 4:27 a.m. EST, Space Shuttle Endeavour roared from Pad 39B on STS-61, the most complex repair mission ever attempted. Commander Richard O. Covey led a crew of seven, including Pilot Kenneth D. Bowersox and Mission Specialists Kathryn C. Thornton, Claude Nicollier of the European Space Agency, Jeffrey A. Hoffman, F. Story Musgrave, and Thomas D. Akers. Over eleven days, the crew conducted a record five back-to-back extravehicular activities totaling 35 hours and 28 minutes. They replaced the jittering solar arrays, installed the Wide Field/Planetary Camera II, and placed the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) to compensate for the primary mirror’s 0.002-millimeter manufacturing flaw. The astronauts also swapped rate-sensing units and electronic control boxes, proving that on-orbit servicing was not merely a concept but a practical reality. When the newly sharpened Hubble began returning crisp images of the cosmos, it validated a daring idea: that machines built to fly could also be healed by human hands in the void. Endeavour landed at Kennedy Space Center on 13 December 1993, having restored a national treasure and expanded the frontier of orbital repair.