Space Is Deep

The Hubble Space Telescope is a powerful scientific instrument that has survived twenty years of exposure to the space detritus that clutters its orbit. It's little wonder that in May of 2009, NASA needed to do some repair work — but with an object that's not so much floating in space but hurtling around the earth at 17,500 miles per hour, you can't just send up a team of astronauts to whack it on the side like it's a TV on the fritz. The five-person team that blasted off to perform the maintenance brought along an IMAX camera to record the mission, because hey — IMAX may as well have been invented for the purpose of filming the grandeur of space. Hubble, the IMAX film, documents the repairs against a backdrop of our rapidly whirling big blue marble, and also features a wealth of the most amazing images our eye in the sky has made during its twenty-year mission. This is space as you've never seen it, but always wished you one day would. Hubble screens daily at the Saint Louis Science Center's OMNIMAX Theater (5050 Oakland Avenue; 314-289-4424 or www.slsc.org) through Thursday, January 6, 2011. Tickets are $8 to $9.
June 11-Jan. 13, 2010