![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2017\/08\/section_of_hubble_solar_wing\/17128843-1-eng-GB\/Section_of_Hubble_solar_wing_small.jpg\")
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\nA deceptively valuable wall hanging: this section of the NASA\u2013ESA Hubble Space Telescope\u2019s solar array flew for eight years in space before being returned to Earth aboard a Space Shuttle, and is now displayed at ESA\u2019s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.\n<\/p>\n
\nSee it for yourself at ESA\u2019s Open Day in the Netherlands on Sunday 8 October. The theme this year is Bringing Space to Earth, focussing on knowledge, hardware and people returned to the ground from space.\n<\/p>\n
\nVIP guests for the Open Day have been confirmed: astronauts Michael Foale of the UK, Dumitru Prunariu of Romania, Ulf Merbold and Ernst Messerschmid of Germany, Dirk Frimout of Belgium, Jean-Jacques Favier and Claudie Haigner\u00e9 of France and Andr\u00e9 Kuipers of the Netherlands.\n<\/p>\n
\nMore than 9200 people have already registered to attend the event; you can sign up here<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nForty years ago this year NASA and ESA agreed to be partners on the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched into orbit on 24 April 1990.\n<\/p>\n \nESA provided the first two generations of solar wings for Hubble<\/a>, replaced and returned during later servicing missions. ESA\u2019s solar power engineers had the valuable opportunity to study how solar arrays degraded in the space environment.\n<\/p>\n \nToday, Hubble is powered by US-made solar wings, but they are kept trained on the Sun by the original European drive mechanisms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \nA deceptively valuable wall hanging: this section of the NASA–ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s solar array flew for eight years in space before being returned to Earth aboard a Space Shuttle, and is now displayed at ESA’s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.\n<\/p>\n \nSee it for yourself at ESA’s Open Day in the Netherlands on Sunday 8 October. The theme this year is Bringing Space to Earth, focussing on knowledge, hardware and people returned to the ground from space.\n<\/p>\n \nVIP guests for the Open Day have been confirmed: astronauts Michael Foale of the UK, Dumitru Prunariu of Romania, Ulf Merbold and Ernst Messerschmid of Germany, Dirk Frimout of Belgium, Jean-Jacques Favier and Claudie Haigneré of France and André Kuipers of the Netherlands.\n<\/p>\n \nMore than 9200 people have already registered to attend the event; you can sign up here<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \nForty years ago this year NASA and ESA agreed to be partners on the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched into orbit on 24 April 1990.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n