Two Tech Updates For Near Space

albino eatpod writes: "According to this CNN article, the first week of March will see a major overhaul on the Hubble Space Telescope. Given that the telescope is 12 years old, it's looking like it will well outlive the projected 15 year lifespan originally slated." And Andrew Robertson writes: "After a lot of hoopla about NASA projects getting shelved, the crew return vehicle for the space station met another milestone. The propulsion stage for deorbiting the first one (prototype) has been delivered :). The only remaining test flight before they put one is orbit (for orbital tests) is a supersonic flight. ATA BOY to all Aerojet engineers."

Comments

Fixing Hubble may kill it

[Anonymous Coward]

If you check some of the NASA sites, even NASA isn't sure Hubble will come back to life when they turn it back on. After 12 years without a power cycle they're not sure what will happen once they turn it off. Stuck relays, bad capacitors, components cooling off,... so many things to go wrong. They may end up with an orbiting pile of junk.

Re:More info at Washington Post

[FTL]

>Anybody remember the lens repair mission? I had almost as much fun watching that as I did watching Alan Shepard's and John Glenn's first rides into space.

Unfortunately I'm of the post-Apollo generation. I would give a great deal to have been a part of those days. The consolation is that with luck I'll live to see a cheap air-breathing space launch system which will kick off a second golden age of space exploration.

As for that first repair mission you mentioned (STS-61), I'll never forget it. The live video of them throwing the defective solar array overboard, then watching it undulate and spin as it was hit by the shuttle's exhaust was unforgettable. Even the busy astronauts were awestruck. They just stood there and watched as it disappeared astern, then in an amazing demonstration of orbital mechanics, turned around and swept ahead of the shuttle.

The next day none of the news channels bothered showing more than a few seconds of that episode. And I've been unable to find it on the net. I wish we had greater access to NASA's archives, I'd love to see that again.