David Ball wrote in
:

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 23:33:52 GMT, Bruce Palmer
wrote:

I think they're greasing the skids for Hubble's demise because they
won't be in a position to launch the servicing mission in time to save
it. Echoes of Skylab.

Is Hubble that close to de-orbiting or does that assume more equipment
failures aboard Hubble ?

I admit I'm a bit ignorant on the technical details of keeping Hubble
in orbit. Does it require re-fueling or some kind of orbital re-boost
by the Shuttle ?

Hubble has no propulsion systems, and is completely dependent on the
shuttle for reboost.

Hubble is in a relatively high orbit and is not projected to re-enter until
after 2010. Of course, a bad solar maximum like the one in 1979-80 that
brought down Skylab could accelerate that, but not by much.


--
JRF

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