Posted on 02/07/2005 9:15:56 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The aging Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites) -- a path-breaking scientific instrument whose eye-catching images have won fans around the world -- would die in orbit under the 2006 budget for NASA (news - web sites) proposed on Monday.
The U.S. space agency's total budget would rise 2.4 percent over 2005 to about $16.5 billion, but only $93 million would be spent on Hubble, with $75 million of that aimed at bringing the observatory down to Earth safely, NASA's comptroller said.
While NASA's budget is only a tiny slice of the overall $2.5 trillion requested for the entire government by the White House for fiscal 2006, it is likely to get close scrutiny in Congress and from the 15 nations that are partners with the United States in the International Space Station (news - web sites).
"Hubble is a spacecraft that is dying," Comptroller Steve Isakowitz said at a briefing in advance of the budget's release. "We have decided that the risks associated with the Hubble servicing at this time don't merit going forward."
Isakowitz said NASA's top priorities include returning the grounded space shuttle fleet to flight, completing construction of the space station and developing a new vehicle to replace the shuttle.
In any event, he said, "We have no plans to pursue a Hubble servicing mission by use of the shuttle."
TOO RISKY TO FIX?
Hubble's fate has been in doubt since January 2004, when President Bush (news - web sites) announced an ambitious plan for human space exploration, including a return to the moon and eventually a human mission to Mars.
Days after the announcement, NASA chief Sean O'Keefe canceled a planned shuttle mission to replace Hubble's fading batteries and its stabilizing gyroscopes. In the aftermath of the fatal Feb. 1, 2003, shuttle Columbia accident, a shuttle repair flight to Hubble was simply too risky, O'Keefe said.
A public outcry prompted a reconsideration, and various life-extending scenarios were suggested, including a robotic repair mission, but an expert scientific panel agreed that shuttle astronauts would do a better job.
Hubble was scheduled to have a shuttle repair-and-upgrade mission -- the fifth for the 14-year-old telescope -- last year, but with all shuttles grounded, that was impossible. Experts differ on how long the telescope can continue to operate without being fixed.
However, Hubble's boosters note that each previous repair flight has extended the craft's life span and added to the amount of scientific work it has been able to perform.
And possibly because of its popularity with the public, it has become a favorite with some on Capitol Hill.
"I would dearly love to save the telescope," Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (news, bio, voting record), a New York Republican who chairs the House Science Committee, said last week. "It has outperformed everyone's fondest hopes and has become a kind of mascot for science, maybe even for our planet. One can't help but root for it."
The Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites). The future of the Hubble Space Telescope hangs in the balance, after the White House declined to approve the necessary funding to repair and upgrade the apparatus, US media reported.(AFP-NASA (news - web sites)/File)
Maybe they could just put it on Ebay ... ;)
I just hope that Taco Bell puts out that big cover in the Ocean again so that if it hits it we can all get free Tacos or whatever....
perhapes they could bring it down on iran just for laughs
Typical of NASA....can a program that is going well and spend the money on a study to decide what to do next.
STUPID...STUPID...STUPID!!!!!!!!!!! If this repair mission by a shuttle is too dangerous, we sure as hell don't need to be in space!
Perhaps those of us who enjoy it should be the ones to chip in to fix it. I can't see taking food off my neighbor's table to fix the toys of my hobby.
Well it is sad, to cut such technically and scientifically important programs, for PEANUTS. What this country wastes on pork programs, supporting our welfare state, caring for ILLEGAL aliens, and giving away to nations that are our enemy....a really sick sense of values.
Instead of an on-orbit repair mission, send a shuttle to retrive it and bring it back to Earth. Sattelites have been brought back before. It would make a great display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
"If this repair mission by a shuttle is too dangerous,"
The concern is that Hubbles orbit is not the same as the space station. There is not enough fuel on board the shuttle to reach the space station from Hubbles orbit. Therefore if a Shuttle had the same damage as Columbia did and could not repair it in orbit the crew would die before a rescue shuttle could be launched.
Hubble has served well and I believe gone beyond its designed lifespan. We will build better space scopes. Hubble is getting old, and many new ground based observatories using new techniques are approaching Hubble performance. Hubble is NOT the end of space based astronomy by any stretch of the imagination. I am not entirely opposed to a repair mission to Hubble. But safety for human lives, risk management and goals are all weighed against each other. Hubble has had a very good run. No one can complain considering it was launched with a severe problem. We got lucky that it was something a workaround was found for. I promise you there are new telesopes to be built in the future that will leave Hubble in the dust.
Lets start pushing for those new telescopes now.
Satellite missions have lifetimes. This one is well past its expiration date. There are bigger and better missions in the pipeline, so let's get moving.
Yes. Popular with the public. and damn the cost to more valuable scientific enterprises like the SUPERCONDUCTING SUPER COLLIDER!
Bring down the HST, the SST and the ISS. Invest in American physics and in the SSC!
GET US OUT OF UN
GET UN OUT OF US.
Where is the Mars funding, much of which needs to funnel to new propulsion?
That's a shame -- Hubble really extended our reach into and appreciation of the heavens...
I'm wondering if a long-term replacement scope could be launched and linked to the ISS in some fashion -- that way repairs could be done in the normal course of sending people to the space station.
It is time to implement the 'Moon Mars and Beyond' program. We haven't sent astronauts or much of anything else to the moon for several decades, thereby wasting the entire careers of many engineers who responded to the Gov't call for more engineers in the late 50s. The space program essentially ended for most about 1971. Now it is being restarted even better than before. Let's roll!
Always should be mentioned. We will find our precious country left in the dust of history--a footnote--if we don't advance at least as fast as the new contenders. There is a big challenge from the EU, and of course China keeps building and building at their snail's pace. Ignoring space development on the public sector level is a public crime. We're not going to retire to our single-family vegetable gardens and expect to survive in the decades ahead. Survival at least, and preeminence if possible should be our goal. We won't survive if we don't compete. National survival is implied at least in the Constitution.
Bush's budget cut hundreds of programs and eliminated 25 altogether. It's probably a gesture since the budget sits at $2.5 trillion, but it's a gesture in the right direction. NASA and the NSA should get a significant boost in funding since they are some of the key to longterm survival of the country.
They already have plenty of junk hanging from the rafters. The Hubble doesn't even have wings! They could hang any commsat in its place, say even the Goresat that was built and never launched; it has the same garbage can look to it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.