Pyramid Actuator Assembly, Camera, HST, Wide Field-Planetary

This is the original pyramid mirror actuator assembly from the first Wide-Field Planetary Camera (WFPC-1) flown on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) on its April 1990 launch. This optical component split the light received by the camera from the telescope and sent it to either of two sets of four systems of relay optics and CCD sensors that created the wide field (f/12.9) or the narrow field (f/30) mosaics. The WFPC-1 was removed from the HST during the servicing mission launched on 2 December 1993 that installed the correcting optics that compensate for the flawed primary mirror. The mirror actuator assembly was transferred to NASM by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in September 1999. It is now on display in the Explore the Universe gallery.