quote: White House cuts Hubble fix-up funds NASA told to focus on destroying telescope safely By Brian Berger Space News staff writer
Updated: 9:16 p.m. ET Jan. 21, 2005
WASHINGTON - The White House has eliminated funding for a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope from its 2006 budget request and directed NASA to focus solely on deorbiting the popular spacecraft at the end of its life, according to government and industry sources.
NASA is debating when and how to announce the change of plans. Sources told Space News that outgoing NASA Administrator Sean O�Keefe likely will make the announcement Feb. 7 during the public presentation of the space agency�s 2006 budget request. That budget request, according to government and industry sources, will not include any money for Hubble servicing but will include some money for a mission to attach a propulsion module to Hubble needed to deorbit the spacecraft safely with a controlled re-entry into the Pacific Ocean. NASA would not need to launch such a mission before the end of the decade to guide the massive telescope safely into the ocean. Sources said O�Keefe received his marching orders on Hubble Jan. 13 during a meeting with White House officials to finalize the agency�s 2006 budget request. With both robotic and shuttle-based servicing options expected to cost well in excess of $1 billion, sources said, NASA was told it simply could not afford to save Hubble given everything else NASA has on its agenda, including preparing the shuttle fleet to fly again. NASA has not yet informed key congressional committees with jurisdiction over the space agency. But congressional sources told Space News they had been hearing since late last week that significant changes were afoot for Hubble. These same sources, however, said they had not ruled out that the White House and NASA might be canceling the Hubble servicing mission as the opening gambit in the annual struggle that goes on every budget year, fully expecting that Congress will add money to the agency�s budget over the course of the year to pay for a mission that has strong public support. Regardless of NASA�s intent, one Senate source predicted that the decision would �go over like a lead balloon� for many lawmakers. A House source concurred. �It�s going to really upset the Hubble crowd, and that includes some members of Congress,� the House source said. In December, after the National Academy of Sciences issued a report calling on NASA to reinstate a space shuttle mission to refurbish Hubble, Congress followed up by directing NASA to spend $291 million this year preparing for some type of Hubble servicing mission. NASA�s initial operating plan for 2005, sent to Congress late last year for its review, only set aside $175 million of that amount for Hubble, with the rest of the money allocated to other agency priorities. � 2005 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com
Fuckers.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
I was under the impression that a new, better telescope was on the way up soon...
Also, why destroy Hubble? Why not just bring it down in a shuttle and scrap ir or put it in a museum or something.
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
It's a lot cheaper to simply trash the Hubble by remote control than to launch a shuttle to go up there and retreive it. Plus, if you're going to launch a shuttle to go get it, then you've lost a good chunk of the rationale for not sending a repair team up there anyway.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
quote:Also, why destroy Hubble? Why not just bring it down in a shuttle and scrap ir or put it in a museum or something.
Probably because it would cost a few extra million dollars to carry the telescope back to Earth rather than construct a special propulsion unit to de-orbit it instead. I mean, it's not like the Smithsonian was established to provide a haven for important objects from the history of air and spaceflight in our country right?
*sigh*
If they're set on not repairing Hubble, the very least they can do is bring it home in one piece and put it on display.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
There better be a new Space Telescope.
I would like to see that array of telescopes - out in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
The James Webb Space Telescope is being designed as we speak, though it is still a long way from being built and launched.
The website. Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
The Web is a pipe dream with congress' current attitude toward space exploration.
It's sad really: the majority of people are intrested but those making NASA's budget are not.
Kinda a reversal of the attitudes of the late 60's.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Well, I realize all the kinks have yet to be worked out, but there's this guy, I forget his name, Tim something or other Lee. He's got some interesting ideas.
Anyway, I've got to go. I just got back from The Wizard and I have just got to get a copy of this latest Mario game! And have you been following this Exxon Valdez trial?
Also, have you heard about this Hubble Space Telescope thing? I guess it goes up in April. BECAUSE IT IS 1990.
(True fact: I didn't know about the Hubble connection until researching my snark. I just chose 1990 because it was the year before Mr. Something Or Other-Lee publishes a paper about his crazy idea.)
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Ten years ago we were not in quite so much federal debt and the prevailing attitude in the US was not so...what's the word....insane?
P.S.- that whole "Exxon Valdez trial" thing led to Exxon paying....wait for it.....very little. Much of the ordered restitution is (and will eternally remain) in appeals purgatory.
And all Mario games suck.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Ohhh anyone heard that new song... "Nineteen Ninties" by Guru Josh? Cool sax riff.
LOL!
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
"researching my snark"
That must have been painstaking. There being no such things as search engines in 1990 and all.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
snark?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Berners.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Of course the government would want to get rid of the Hubble. All those astronomical phenomenae quite plainly not orbiting around the Earth, no Crystal Spheres of the Firmament in sight. NASA brought it on themselves by releasing all those questionable images accompanied by press releases containing heretical references to things being millions of years old, quite plainly an absurdity when everyone knows the universe was only created 6,000 years ago.
Posted by Topher (Member # 71) on :
Everyone knows that the earth was created on the night preceding Sunday the 23rd of October 4004 BC. Naturally.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Alarmingly, my brother's birthday is October 23rd.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Cool sax riff.