Currently a shuttle trip has been ruled out. NASA is seeking tenders for a
robotic rescue (deadline July 2004! - and they claimed beagle had tight
deadlines).
Here is the news story:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99995066


"Russ Evenhouse" wrote in message
...

"Aunt Buffy" wrote in message
news:Pd2wc.133$Ol6.5@newsfe2-win...
Seeing as its an election year for the USA. I can not see BUSH allowing
the
SHUTTLE to go up and rescue Hubble - since the possibility of failure
(on
many fronts) would hurt his quest for extended presidency!

This despite the majority of astronauts wanting to go up.

There are times (100%) when I truly hate the politicians

Dear Aunt Buffy,
I can't believe the Hubble will be abandoned totally. I imagine that if
the
Feds cut off funding for it completely, that there will be some sort of
philanthropic volunteer measure to rescue it and make it a private
venture,
or possible funded jointly between various groups and governments. I don't
know it's fully expected lifetime from right now, but I think it's still
fully functional without physical tending for some period of a year yet.
I'd
send a hundred bucks to some volunteer effort to rescue it. The US is not
the only country that could send up a repair crew.
Russ Evenhouse