The Hubble Telescope After Assembly. The telescope is being removed from its assembly stand. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was designed to see seven times further into space than had been possible before, without the distortion caused by the Earth's atmosphere. It is a reflecting telescope and its main mirror has a diameter of 2. 5 metres (NASA Media Archives). Buy this as a superb wall poster, a canvas print or a framed print.