Moon in, Mars in; Hubble out

[unixronin]

The Hubble Space Telescope has become collateral damage in the wake of President Bush's plan to send manned missions to the Moon and Mars.  Bush's plan calls for the Shuttle to be retired in 2010, with virtually all remaining Shuttle flights until then scheduled to be used to complete the International Space Station.  (One assumes, and hopes, that the plan also includes having a Shuttle replacement flying by 2010.)  As a side-effect of this plan and of safety requirements established after the loss of Columbia, all remaining Hubble servicing missions have been canceled.

The Hubble Telescope is expected to continue operating until 2007 or 2008, and is planned to be safely de-orbited in 2011 or 2012.  NASA plans to launch a more capable James Webb Space Telescope in 2011 to replace Hubble; no word yet as to what NASA plans to launch it on.

Comments

[dirtynumbangel.livejournal.com]

As long as they don't write the OS. The hardware for Xbox (which i presume is outsourced, correct me if I'm wrong) seems to be fairly reliable.

Yes, I know there's a huge difference betwixt a gaming console and a spaceship :P

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, aside from the CD/DVD drive in it that was scratching disks, and Microsoft denied there was a problem until the Japanese MADE them fix it.

Of course, I'm also told the damned thing weighs about twice as much as one each of every other game console on the market put together.