Sounds like this one is (all together now) all Bush's fault!!!
Does anyone else remember the design life of HST? Or that we got the STS instead of the SSC? Now the jewel HST depends on the obsolescent (I considered an alternative epithet) STS for its extended life and the SSC is forgotten.
Well, the thermal protection on the shuttle bottom surfaces is crucial [on shuttle top much less so] - and it is that "belly" that faces the fuel tank. If the tank were to be attached from the opposite side, on the shuttle "back", the danger would be much less.
Glory Days
In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula in January 2006 using the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
I was told by someone at JSP that the design for the Hubble was based on the design of spy satellites...and when they ground the mirrors, they forgot to adjust for the fact it was looking outward, not down to earth.
Don't know if that's totally true.
But I was a member of the Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society (my dad still is fairly active with them via computer), and knew some people who were involved with the mission when they corrected the Hubble's vision.
Hope they can get it fixed.