The Hubble Space Telescope must die.
from the
Washington Post
bq. Some of the telescope's systems are showing the effects of 13 years of wear and tear in space. A far more advanced successor is being readied, and NASA officials have long maintained that the Hubble must be retired in a few years to free up money to pay for the newcomer.
and
bq. At the Friday meeting, the parties agreed to postpone a decision on one of the most contentious issues: whether NASA would consider prolonging the telescope's useful life until 2020, as recommended recently by a prestigious independent panel of top scientists led by John Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
bq. That would require an extra refurbishing visit by astronauts at an estimated cost of at least $600 million and possibly much more -- money that is not currently contemplated in NASA's budget planning.
bq. NASA upset many space scientists by presenting them with a stark choice: Either sacrifice the extra servicing mission for the Hubble or give up many years worth of smaller, fast-response space science missions.
Tough call - the new scope will be a lot better but there is a lot of useful work that can still be done with the Hubble...
Posted by DaveH at November 17, 2003 11:30 AM