In article ,
Brian Gaff wrote:
Why was the Hubble placed in the orbit it is in. Pity nobody thought about
access when it was put up.

Hardly -- it is, in fact, in the *most* accessible orbit for the shuttle.
(The ISS orbit is much less convenient, and was an unhappy compromise that
became necessary when the Russians joined the project.)

I'd have thought that there could have been
orbits that would be reachable from ISS without the huge thrust requirements
that the current one requires.

Not ones where the shuttle could have lifted Hubble to the desired altitude.
(Shuttle payload to ISS-like orbits is rather more limited.)

Besides, nobody *cared* whether Hubble was going to be accessible from
ISS. ISS was utterly irrelevant to Hubble operations. Servicing Hubble
with dedicated shuttle flights made all kinds of sense; having to work via
ISS made no sense at all.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |