[RightWhale]

To stay cold, the telescope has to be sent some 1.5 million kilometres from Earth

Any idea what they are talking about?

[MikeD]

They're sending it to one of the LaGrange points in order to keep it cooler. Not only will there be less heating from the Earth, but you get more observation time because you don't have a big planet in the way.

Unfortunately, Hubble was inexorably tied to the Shuttle. We could have built three of them and launched them to higher orbits on expendable rockets for the cost of the Shuttle launch and service missions. Of course, the Smithsonian has to have its exhibit in ten years...

MD