spacetoday.net: NASA outlines three options for Hubble's future

Posted: Fri, Aug 15, 2003, 10:20 AM ET (1420 GMT)
Hubble Space Telescope (NASA)

NASA announced Thursday that it is considering three options for the future of the Hubble Space Telescope, ranging from two shuttle servicing missions to attaching an automated propulsion module. Those options were presented to NASA in a report by an independent panel of astronomers commissioned by NASA to investigate how long to continue operating the shuttle. The first, baseline option calls for a single shuttle servicing mission in 2005 and 2006 that is already planned. A second option, considered the highest priority by astronomers, adds an additional servicing mission by 2010 to extend the shuttle’s lifetime. The third option would involve no shuttle servicing mission, but instead an automated mission to attach a propulsion module that would be used to deorbit the spacecraft in a controlled manner. Congress asked NASA in its latest budget to investigate extending the lifetime of Hubble beyond 2010, in part to provide no gaps in coverage with the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2011. At the same time, some have raised concerns in the wake of the Columbia accident about sending the shuttle on missions other than to the International Space Station.