Posted on 01/21/2005 2:25:17 PM PST by purple haze
WASHINGTON – The White House has eliminated funding for a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope from its 2006 budget request and directed NASA to focus solely on de-orbiting the popular spacecraft at the end of its life, according to government and industry sources.
NASA is debating when and how to announce the change of plans. Sources told Space News that outgoing NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe likely will make the announcement Feb. 7 during the public presentation of the U.S. space agency’s 2006 budget request.
That budget request, according to government and industry sources, will not include any money for Hubble servicing but will include some money for a mission to attach a propulsion module to Hubble needed to safely de-orbit the spacecraft with a controlled re-entry into the Pacific Ocean. NASA would not need to launch such a mission before the end of the decade to guide the massive telescope safely into the ocean.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
But we'll keep sending billions on that space station - the UN office with the best view.
Who the devil is making the space exploration recommendations to the Bush administration. Whom ever it is - is a crack addict and knows absolutely NOTHING about it. Probably some number crunching desk jocky.
Hubble has been money WELL specnt by NASA standards-- that said, screw the ISS and let's get back to the moon and beyond!!!
I'm glad to hear it. I think most of NASAs budget is a total waste anyway.
If someone could figure a way of making money on it then it would get done. But that isn't going to happen unless the government, eh.. you and I .... foot the bill.
What a shame. There's nothing that replaces Hubble for years. Next Generation Space Telescope is still being designed....no where near ready to fly.
Shame.
I agree with the NASA budget being wasteful. However, since Bush's Mission to Mars statement, interest in Engineering is booming. (If I may draw a line with a single data point.)
A friend teaching a nuclear lab stated he's gone from having two labs to 4 labs with overflow in one year.
Getting kids interested in science and engineering is good news.
We can build another Hubble better than the one we have and launch it for less than the cost to service the current one.
Bush (wisely) plans to shelve the Shuttle, if you read between the lines of his announcements.
This is part of the shelving process.
Build a new one, spend the launch funds on good optics, and lauch it from a regular old rocket.
There is plenty of dough for space science if you take the humans out of the spacecraft. They are no longer needed, especially at the massive cost adder.
No need to, it's just been announced.
and with the money left over build a 100foot optical telescope here on the ground!
Penny wise and pound foolish.
The Hubble telescope is one of the few recent NASA success stories. It's not only very popular, but it does real scientific investigation into the nature of the universe and some of its curious details. They should scrap the international space station, which is one of the most expensive and stupidest boondoggles ever, and use a tiny portion of that wasted money to service the Hubble. The big money has already been spent building it and getting it up there.
But evidently they've made their decision.
Isn't it true that one shuttle service mission to Hubble costs more than the cost to build Hubble and place it in orbit?
You just keep Hubble stable (not necessarily usable) until the last or next-to-last shuttle mission and then send a shuttle to service it. The reason they don't want to go, the possible loss of an orbiter leaving us without a rescue ship and not enough inventory to sustain regular launches, will then at that point no longer exist.
"National Academy of Sciences"
Didn't these guys come out in favor of the Kyoto protocols.
The problem with the ISS is lack of vision. If they used an inflatable module to provide a pressurized space to assemble other space vehicles (or even to repair the shuttle) then it would serve a useful purpose. It should be a staging place for further exploration, not an end unto itself where we study how spiders weave webs in space or how to dispense Coke from a fountain.
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