Hope for Hubble??

[robnissen]

There is still at least a glimmer of hope in keeping Hubble alive:<br /><br />http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45041-2005Apr11.html<br /><br />"NASA engineers have taken a successful first step in showing they could service the Hubble Space Telescope using only robots, implicitly challenging NASA headquarters' insistence that Hubble will have to be abandoned because the controversial $470 million mission is too expensive and too difficult. <br /><br />"In an unpublished March 28 letter marking the end of a 'preliminary design review' of the robotic proposal, review chairman Dennis B. Dillman, a NASA engineer, complimented Goddard Space Flight Center's Hubble team for an 'extremely successful' presentation. 'Congratulations are due for reaching this milestone in such [a] short time,' the letter said, urging 'robust support' in 'resources and staffing' for the Hubble team."<br /><br />Of course NASA had to immediately throw a wet blanket on the idea:<br /><br />"NASA's Mark Borkowski, the headquarters program manager for the Hubble Robotic Servicing Mission, said yesterday that the agency did not intend to let a robotic servicing mission proceed and had allowed the preliminary design review to go forward 'because the folks [at Goddard] asked for the opportunity.'" <br /><br />All well, we shall see, maybe the Senate will take up the cause since the Bush administration would rather spend research dollars making new nukes.<br /><br /><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />

 

[odysseus145]

Is there any chance at all that the Hubble could be serviced via shuttle? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[adzel_3000]

I certainly hope that a Shuttle servicing mission to HST can be undertaken. I appreciate the risk and concern about the current ISS as a safe haven policy...however, I am reminded of what Chuck Yaeger said after Challenger: "Shoot, just fly it in the summer with all volunteer military crews."<br /><br />I am curious however, if this servicing mission is not carried out and the US announces its intention to abandon in place, does HST become a salvageable piece of hardware? Also, could a Soyuz be used to service the HST?<br /><br />--A3K

 

[yg1968]

The James Webb telescope is set to launch in 2011. Servicing Hubble will keep it alive until 2010. The shuttle orbiters will no longer be active in 2010. This would likely be the last Hubble servicing mission.