The Hubble Space Telescope is a joint ESA/NASA project and was launched in 1990 by the Space Shuttle mission STS-31 into a low-Earth orbit 600 km above the ground. During its lifetime Hubble has become one of the most important science projects ever.

Hubble's original solar wings were constructed by ESA. Thin and flexible in nature, they comprised two double roll-out solar array wings Each array stands on a 1.2-m mast that supports a retractable wing of solar panels 12.1-m long and 2.5-m wide in full extension, with buffer assemblies for interfacing the stowage drum and spreader bar tensioning the blankets.