[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Lunik9_*]

In 1969, CCD-technology was demonstrated for the very first time and the first use of a CCD in astronomy was accomplished by NASA-JPL in 1975 at the 1.52 m telescope at Mount Lemmon - AZ to image the planet Uranus.
However, I would like to find out which (deep) space mission was the very first to use CCD technology... probably an Earth remote sensing mission.

For ESA's deep space mission I guess this was the 1985 Giotto mission to comet Halley?

[NGC3314]

Hubble appears to have been the first dedicated astronomical mission to use CCDs (not surprising since the project paid for a lot of development, which also produced spinoff detectors for many other projects including the first numerous ground-based astronomical CCDs, the 800x800 TI chips). Launched 1990, the CCDs (though probably not everything else) would have been ready for the original 1986 date. So far, that would put the Vegas and Giotto as the first CCD science uses actually in space.