It's painful for me to let the Hubble go, and I'm just a dazzled bystander. That being said, it's amazing to think that Hubble was designed in the 1970s; all this glorious capability is nonetheless 30 years behind what we could do now. So, it's time to put up a new orbiting observatory IMO and let Hubble go, but I don't think it should be before we have a Next Generation visible spectrum telescope up there. There's so much universe to see and so little time to see it!
PS. There's a 1 in 700 chance Hubble will kill someone at reentry..
"PS. There's a 1 in 700 chance Hubble will kill someone at reentry.."
and a 1 in 50000 chance that they will put something else up to replace it before they let her splash.
Hmm I sense a opprotunity to sell some insurance .. Hubble protection insurance..
"Then I suppose some sort of hat would be in order." -- Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson), Blackadder II
Hubble is modular and designed to be upgraded with better technology as it is developed. A new observatory would cost billions and IMHO, would never get funded.