If it's still so useful someone tell me again why we are letting the Hubble die?
There aren't enough shuttle missions available to keep Hubble running. But, you can look forward to the Next Generation Space Telescope, now known as the James Webb Space Telescope, unless it's canceled.
I doubt that the initial optical problem was on the up and up, since the contractors got rewarded for it by being paid to fix it.
Similarly, the cry will ring out, "Save Hubble". NASA will reply "No Money in Budget". "Save Hubble" crowd will speak of Hubble as if it were a cute little furry thing, so cuddly, endangered, and it will Burn, Burn, Burn a horrible end unless The Government Does Something, namely gives NASA more loot.
Some of us know Private Enterprise would open Space faster, better, more efficiently, and at a fair profit to investors provided the investors are willing to wait a long time for the payback.
We'll probably lose this one. "Save Hubble" will result in NASA getting more loot, most likely.
If the copyrights and patents clause of the US Constitution was recognized under law as applying to basic research as will as final products, we'd have profitable private research of all types already.
Because it's old and obsolete.
Because we can get a $35.00 deposit back on the mirror at Piggly-Wiggly.