It's official: no reprieve for Hubble

[unixronin]

NASA got a 2.5% budget hike for 2006, but none of that is for saving Hubble.  Out of the $16.45 billion budget, only $75 million is allocated to Hubble, and "all of that would be used to develop a mission for steering the orbiting observatory into the ocean at the end of its lifetime."  Everything at NASA now primarily "revolves around" President Bush's stated goal of a return to the Moon by 2020.

"NASA is working on ways to remotely manage the 14-year-old Hubble in order to keep it going as long as possible, and is considering launching two already completed Hubble cameras on a separate yet-to-be-built spacecraft," [NASA comptroller Steve] Isakowitz said.  "We have been as eager as the Congress to try to save the Hubble, but at the end of the day, what we're trying to save is the science related to Hubble."

And, in the end, you've got to respect that.  The science, not the hardware, is, after all, the point.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

2020. Ha. Burt could do it by 2015 easy (presuming he makes orbit by 2010, which is the Bigelow Prize deadline), and make a profit on it. Here we go again with the boondoggles.

OTOH, the idea of launching Hubble cameras on new spacecraft, particularly remotely-maintainable ones, sounds good to me.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, I think we've already established that the government Doesn't Get It.