NASA approves sending space shuttle to repair Hubble telescope
 

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articleA...bblerepair.php

NASA approves sending space shuttle to repair Hubble telescope
By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press Writer

2006-10-31
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - NASA Administrator Michael Griffin on Tuesday approved sending a space shuttle to repair the 16-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, reversing his predecessor's contentious decision to nix the mission.

Griffin's announcement was greeted eagerly by astronomers who feared Hubble would deteriorate before the end of the decade without a mission to add new camera instruments, sensors and replace aging batteries.

The shuttle mission will likely be in early 2008.

Former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe canceled a Hubble mission in the wake of the Columbia shuttle disaster that killed seven astronauts in 2003. O'Keefe believed the risks were too great and the remaining shuttle missions should focus on completing construction of the international space station.

Unlike the remaining 14 shuttle flights needed to finish space station construction, astronauts going to Hubble wouldn't have a refuge in the event of a catastrophic problem like the one that doomed Columbia. NASA would have another shuttle on the launch pad, ready to make an emergency rescue trip in case of trouble.

A rehab mission would keep Hubble working until about 2013. It would add two new camera instruments, upgrade aging batteries and stabilizing equipment, add new guidance sensors and repair a light-separating spectrograph.

Without a servicing mission, Hubble likely would deteriorate in 2009 or 2010.

Among the Hubble's many scientific accomplishments, the telescope has enabled direct observation of the universe as it was 12 billion years ago, discovered black holes at the center of many galaxies, provided measurements that helped establish the size and age of the universe and offered evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

The telescope also has popularized astronomy by producing countless wondrous images.

"I believe the risks are worth the reward of going into space for just about any mission, in particular the Hubble mission," said astronaut Jim Newman, who was on the last space shuttle mission to Hubble in 2002.

yeah, when I heard that they werent gonna continue the Hubble... I was pissed... Its a great project.

I sure would like to see a Hubble zoom closeup of some footprints and that flag on the moon, though. heh. Or the moon buggy, something.

:)

Hubble is as important as any space-related mission we have going. It's discoveries are incredible. The wait list and times and effort needed for a scientist to be able to have the Hubble point at his or her particular field of research are incredibly long.

Killing the program is moronic.

Still to this day..the greatest accomplishment..riding a beast of a launch vehicle 363 ft tall and weighing over 7 million pounds when filled with fuel..the Saturn 5 rocket..still amazing 37 years later..

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That might be 7 million pounds, parcells. 7 million tons would take up about half a state.

Touche professor..it's early :cuss: :cuss: :cuss:

I didn't really know much about it, but on one of the HD cable channels here that just shows random stuff in HD, there was an hour-long show about Hubble that was just incredible stuff.

And I didn't realize what we were getting out of it, I figured - ok, cool, we're taking some pictures of space stuff. Big deal. It does have scientific merit and I think we should keep it going.

Good. I heard that Griffin planned this since taking over from O'Queef. Hopefully, he'll not focus so much on the ISS. That POS is going to kill people one day.

I believe there is a plan to replace it with something better, but the project is far enough out that there was going to be a substantial amount of time between the time that Hubble went off line and the new one is up. I'm glad to see that they are not giving it up as it seems to be one of the most powerful tools out there right now.

Though I really wish they had a project running for an array telescope for space, put a few medium sized telescopes out there, link them together. Could get some amazing resolution.

Holy shit, a good decision? From NASA?!?!

*fingers through his handy-dandy pocket bible to the part marked "signs of the apocalypse*

2013, IIRC. I think's it's going to be a pure IR scope though.

The Hubble isn't built to photograph such a close, fast moving object like the moon, not mention it would be a colossal waste of the limited resources of the Hubble to study something as well photographed as the moon.

All you need to do is call your nearest observatory for iron-clad physical proof of the moon missions, you moron. Astronomers have been bouncing laser beams off the reflectors left there by the astronauts for decades. By doing so they can calculate the changing distance between the earth and moon, revealing other facts about the two bodies' densities, internal shifting, and other interesting data.

You should spend more time trying to figure out how George Bush got all of those explosives inside the Twin Towers without being detected.