Save the Hubble - San Diego Untion Tribune editorial

[question everything]

(snip)

In January, O'Keefe canceled a servicing mission to the space telescope that was scheduled for 2006 and would extend Hubble's life span.

Among other jobs, astronauts were to boost the space telescope into higher orbit, which, according to the Hubble Web site, is a standard task that helps keep the space observatory from spiraling too close to the Earth and re-entering the atmosphere.

They also would have replaced a fine guidance sensor, which would help point the telescope, and placed protective blankets around torn insulation. And the astronauts would have installed new equipment, including a wide field camera, which sees in both infrared and ultraviolet wave lengths, and a high resolution spectrograph, a prism-like instrument capable of studying the composition of far-distant interstellar gas.

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The shuttle crews that have performed serving missions to the Hubble on the four previous occasions were aware of the risks. And most agree with Greg Harbaugh, who performed Hubble repairs during a pair of spacewalks in 1997, who said that pulling the plug on Hubble would be "a huge, huge mistake."

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http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040410/news_lz1ed10middle.html

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Remember, the Hubble was going to be sacrificed

to the Manned Mars mission. Later, more simply stated, it was to be sacrificed to budget problems brought on by tax cuts and the war in Iraq.