Yesterday, NASA astronauts were launched 360 miles into space to perform repairs akin to “brain surgery” on the Hubble Space Telescope in hopes of obtaining a deeper and sharper view into the depths of the universe. That’s according to USA Today, which writes that the telescope will receive a more powerful camera and chemical spectrometer, making for more brilliant observations if the mission is successful. So far, Hubble has delivered an understanding of stellar nurseries, star blasts, black holes, galaxy growth, the age of the universe, and other phenomena. Colorado has ties to the mission, reports The Denver Post, including project planning and implementation by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, instruments by Ball Aerospace & Technology Co., and assistance in instrument building by the University of Colorado. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph will address a great mystery: “What’s the large-scale structure of the universe?” principle investigator Jim Green of CU tells The Washington Post. Michael Shull, an astrophysics professor at CU, tells PopSci.com that the material of life originated inside stars and is probably looming in intergalactic space. The question is “What is it?” Want to follow the real Star Trek? Astronaut Mike Massimino is tweeting about the mission on Twitter.