One of the largest scientific projects in history, the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope was developed by astronomers and NASA over more than two decades. Immediately after its launch in 1990 it was found to suffer from serious optical distortion. A historic and flawlessly executed Space Shuttle mission in 1993 corrected this problem, and the Hubble has been performing superbly since that time. Hubble telescope continually carries out a diverse program of observations by astronomers throughout the world, and during the past few years has made important discoveries of a number of different phenomena which have advanced our understanding of the birth of stars, stellar explosions, planetary activity, black holes, and the formation of galaxies. The Hubble's greatest legacy may turn out to be the stunning view it has given us of the distant universe. The 10-day Hubble Deep Field campaign obtained the faintest images of distant galaxies ever recorded, and has provided us with the clearest picture of the formation of galaxies soon after the Big Bang.