On Friday (April 24), Hubble’s 36th birthday, the Colorado-based spatial intelligence company Vantor published a stunning, close-up shot of the telescope that was taken the day before by one of its WorldView Legion Earth-observing satellites.
“Celebrating 36 years of discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope,” Vantor wrote in an X post that shared the photo. “For over three decades, Hubble has expanded our understanding of the universe —delivering breathtaking imagery and groundbreaking science that continue to inspire. Proud to support the technologies and teams that make moments like this possible.”
Interesting that a satellite designed to focus on the surface 322 miles away was able to aim and focus at a neighboring satellite in orbit only 35 miles away.
The focus isn’t really an issue since at that distance everything is approximately at infinity (think taking a photo of two distant mountains; even if one is further than the other they’ll both be in focus).
As for tracking, it probably took some math to figure out where to point, but actually tracking shouldn’t be an issue. Hubble was moving much slower than the Earth relative to the satellite (hence the blurry background) so the tracking speed should be well within its capability.
Still a really impressive photo though!
Hubble’s blueprint was also a spy satellite to look at earth, not stars.
It’s a useful ability to have, if you’re photographing foreign spy satellites instead of a NASA telescope.