Hubble Space Telescope first casualty of Bush space initiative

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http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/20...-ditched_x.htm


Hubble Space Telescope first casualty of Bush space
initiative

By Paul Recer, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Hubble Space Telescope will be allowed to
degrade and eventually become useless as NASA changes focus
to President Bush's plans to send humans to the moon, Mars
and beyond, officials say.

NASA canceled all space shuttle servicing missions to the
Hubble, which has revolutionized the study of astronomy with
its striking images of the universe.

John Grunsfeld, NASA's chief scientist, said Friday that
NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe made the decision to cancel
the fifth space shuttle service mission to the Hubble when
it became clear there was not enough time to conduct it
before the shuttle is retired. The servicing mission was
considered essential to enable the orbiting telescope to
continue to operate.

"This is a sad day," said Grunsfeld, but he said the
decision "is the best thing for the space community."

He said the decision was influenced by President Bush's new
space initiative, which calls for NASA to start developing
the spacecraft and equipment for voyages to the moon and
later to Mars. The president's plan also called for the
space shuttle to be retired by 2010. Virtually all of the
shuttle's remaining flights would be used to complete
construction of the International Space Station.

The shuttle has been grounded since the explosion of the
Columbia nearly a year ago.

end excerpt



It is ridiculous to blame the Hubble decision on President
Bush's new Moon/Mars space initiative.

This decision was made because of the Columbia space
shuttle disaster; the safety concerns related to future
shuttle launches; the *very* large number of shuttle
launches required to finish the International space station;
and the fact that the Columbia disaster has severly damaged
the space station construction schedule due to the grounding
of the other shuttles.

All of these problems would still exist even if President
Bush had not announced a new space initiative, and the
decision about Hubble would be the same.

I personally hope NASA can figure out a way to service the
Hubble telescope. It is more important than any one piece
of the International space station, so if one flight has to
be cancelled, let it be one to the International space
station rather than the one to Hubble, especially
considering that we already have $200 million worth of new
instruments to add to Hubble that have already been bought
and paid for.


TA