[Frobenius]

So now we’ll risk an orbiter and crew, in the middle of an aggressive and behind schedule ISS assembly sequence, on a science mission which is largely duplicative of ground based and/or upcoming space based instruments. Not to mention that we could be spending the $800MM slated for this mission on closing the flight gap between shuttle and Orion or on a very nice unmanned mission (if that’s your brand of choice).

I disagree with respect -- The Hubble upgrade will enable us to see the Universe as it was just at just 6% of its current age.

I certainly understand that there is risk - but there is risk with any flight - and I argue that Hubble is one of the truly great things that NASA has done since we abandoned manned flight beyond low Earth orbit 35-years ago.

[JohnBovenmyer]

If we don’t upgrade the Hubble now we’re supposed to have an even better next generation space telescope available in what, 0.0000001% of the lifetime of the Universe. I don’t think it will change much in that time. The only harm will be to the careers of a few astronomers who will have less data to analyze. If we don’t get the space station finished, or at least the parts that require the Shuttle to be finished done, before the Shuttle’s croak, then we’ll risk losing the space station. That’s a more important and more expensive loss.