NASA Urged to Reconsider Shuttle Mission to HST

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @06:13PM from the some-clown-on-the-moon dept.

LMCBoy writes "Space.com reports today that the National Academies of Science has released its recommendation to NASA on the future of the Hubble Space Telescope. They conclude that 'NASA should take no actions that would preclude a space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.' They also say that none of the safety requirements of the CAIB report preclude a manned servicing mission to HST." Read on for more.

"The NAS recommendation would reverse NASA's previous position that a shuttle repair mission is ruled out for safety reasons. In the wake of strong criticisms of this decision, NASA has also been considering a robotic repair mission. The robotic mission would not risk human lives, but it relies on a number of bleeding-edge technologies that would have to be deployed on a very short timescale. HST's remaining gyroscopes are not expected to last beyond 2007."

1 of 199 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Show me the money... by LostCluster · 2004-07-13 18:17 · Score: 5, Informative

Safety concerns was the offical reason why they didn't want to service the Hubble, but this report most clearly is saying that's bunk.

But what about the finacial concerns? I don't think NASA has the funding to allocate to a Hubble Repair mission... could the safety claims just have been a smokescreen to cover when the real reason was because they can't get the funding to do this?