Observational astronomy has striven for better telescopes with higher resolutions from its start. This needs ever-larger mirrors with stable high precision surfaces. The extremely low expansion glass ceramic ZERODUR^® enables such mirrors with more than 50 years of significant improvements in size and quality since its development. We provide a survey of the progress achieved in the last 15 years. The narrowest coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) tolerance is now ±7  ppb  /  K. It is possible to adapt the material for lowest expansion to temperature-time courses given for special environments. At cryo temperatures, expansion is low and adaptable. Improved measurement capabilities allow for absolute CTE uncertainty of 3  ppb  /  K and reproducibility of 1  ppb  /  K (2σ). The influence of ionizing radiation on the surface figure integrity is subject to new investigations. Improved measurement capabilities increase the reliability of structure designs. Some outstanding examples are given for applications of ZERODUR in astronomy and in the very important high technology industry. The progress of thermal expansion homogeneity, the mechanical strength of ZERODUR, production capabilities in melting, precision machining, light-weighting, and dimensional metrology is presented in the second part of the paper.