NASA Debates How And When To Kill Hubble Telescope

Amy's Robot writes "The Washington Post reports that after 13 years of wear and tear, the Hubble telescope may be on the way out. NASA and some outside scientists have become involved in a heated debate about how and when to end the Hubble telescope program. Keeping Hubble in service until 2020 would require an extra maintenance visit by astronauts at a cost of at least $600 million. Some even worry the batteries could fail by 2010, since the next maintenance visit has been delayed by the Columbia accident and space station priorities. Is it worth maintaining our old friend Hubble, or should NASA let him go out in a blaze of glory?"

Comments

Re:$600 Million

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Yep. But it doesn't have anything to do with killing little brown people, so it's off the list. Perhaps we should tell Bush that we need to keep Hubble going so we can spot alien terrorists ...