For Nasa's head of science programmes, Dr Anne Kinney, one of Hubble's most memorable achievements is the view it has provided of new planets being formed.
David Leckrone, a scientist at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said Hubble "has earned a place as one of the wonders of the modern world."
"Not since Galileo aimed a small 30-power telescope into the night sky in 1609 has humanity's vision of the universe been so
revolutionised in such a short time span by a single instrument."
"Hubble's rate of discovery is simply unprecedented for any single observatory," said Ed Weiler, the associate administrator for space science at Nasa Headquarters in Washington DC.
Baby planets
"But what may be even more important in the long term is what Hubble has given to just about everyone on Earth," said Mr Weiler.
For Nasa's head of science programmes, Dr Anne Kinney, one of Hubble's most memorable achievements is the view it has provided of new planets being formed.
"Little stars peeking out of discs of obscuring material. These are really thought to be solar systems before they have formed and Hubble has observed a number of these," she said.
The telescope's stellar successes eclipsed what at first appeared to be a major failure.
Just two months after its launch, astronomers were dismayed to discover that the telescope was out of focus - a flaw in its main mirror prevented its cameras from capturing clean images.
It was not until 1993 that astronauts were able to fix the problem in a space rendezvous.
The US astrophysicist Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) was the first to posit the existence of distant galaxies beyond the Milky Way and to theorise that the Universe is expanding.
Next generation
The telescope named after him has largely confirmed all his theories, and astronomers await new and greater insights in the 10
years remaining in its expected life span.
This telescope would be much bigger than Hubble, and able to penetrate areas of the Universe currently out of sight.
Professor Martin Ward, chairman of the European Space Agency's astronomy working group, said the telescope might come closer to providing information about the existence of life in outer space.
"Although it probably won't find planets like our Earth, because they are very small and very dense, even finding Jupiter-like planets will tell us that there are other solar systems," he said.
"This has very intriguing implications for whether there might be life out there beyond the Earth."