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The Humble Space Telescope
frank249 writes " How would you like to do your own astronomy research with a space-based telescope? Sounds unlikely? Perhaps today, since there's only one available, and NASA has it booked pretty solid. However, this is about to change. The Canadian Space Agency just signed a contract to launch Canada's first space telescope, is scheduled to be launched in October 2002. If successful, millions of astronomers worldwide will have access to a more humble version of NASA's Hubble via the internet. It is scheduled to be launched in October 2002 as part of a multiple payload mission from Plesetsk, Russia, on an SS-19 based launch vehicle called Rockot. The SS-19 was supposed to be destroyed as part of an Arms reduction treaty so why not get some use out of it?" And it's so cute, it looks like mod furniture.
There have been many space telescopes... depending on which wavelength range you are talking about. The author seems to be writing about visible wavelengths... even there, there was a telescope flown on the shuttle and there are plans for one on the space station. But Chandra, SIRTF (space infrared telescope facility), COBE, Hipparcos (sp?), and the CGO (Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory) were all space-based telescopes.
Of more interest to us astronomy-types is the latest go-ahead given by NASA to Kepler which is a space-based telescope that will look for Earth-like planets around other stars.
Joe from berkeley.