HST to be abandoned!!

Sad news - the HST is to be abandoned. Here are comments from the HST Users Committeee Chair, Debra Elmegreen, passed on to me today.

Gordon

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 14:04:54 -0500
From: Debra Elmegreen .....
To: <long list omitted>

Subject: Devastating Hubble news

Hi Keckies-
Perhaps you saw HST director Steve Beckwith's statement in the NY Times this morning that HST was in jeopardy because of the new moon/Mars missions. I tried to contact Steve earlier but he was not in the office. Eric Smith from NASA just called (since I am HST Users Committee chair) to tell me that Sean O'Keefe has just cancelled Servicing Mission 4 for HST, with President Bush's support. It is a done deal. Although Ed Weiler and John Grunsfeld fought the decision, it was Sean's alone to make. He has been considering it for months. The issue was NOT money; it was safety. The whole shuttle program would have needed to have been overhauled just for getting to HST, but with much less hassle for Space Station launches. Other divisions within NASA, such as some solar missions, were willing to put their money towards keeping HST going. But it won't happen now. A robotic mission will bring HST down when it dies. This will mean a tremendous immediate loss of jobs within the STScI. Eric said the one silver lining is that everyone promised that JWST would only be limited by technical difficulties, not money. So, if you're preparing HST proposals for next week, they may be among your last...just wanted to share the sad news. Regards, Debbie"

Jeez, that came out of the blue! Only recently they were talking about 2010. If they are going to go to the ISS to finish it off, they might as well fix Hubble.

I hope they can re-assign the people that will lose jobs out of this.
I am livid at this.

They should at least go and get it back and bring it down for display in the NASM in Washington. HST has given us more insight into our universe, has helped to get the wonders of the universe out to the public across the world, and all in all, it's been hugely important to the development of the human race and how we view ourselves in the universe. To destroy it just like that does a disservice to future generations, in my humble opinion.

It's like destroying the Wright flyer, the Bell X1, an Apollo LEM or Command Module, etc etc etc etc.

Frickin' Dubya...and I bet he welches on NASA when another war kicks off, or when they realise that the "war on terror" is costing far too much money and that the US economy needs more money, and that money earmarked for NASA will do just fine.

AGGGH.

*ahem*

Sorry. Rant over.

I wondered is the planned replacement for the HST still going ahead?

I read somewhere that NASA had already decided on taking HST out of service before the replacement was in place. But can the replacement be delivered and serviced without the Shuttle?

I also agree with Tom.

The legacy of HST should never be forgotten.

Conor

Also. They canned it for safety reasons.

AND THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO MARS.

I am not livid anymore, I'm beyond it. Needless to say, dedication to science appears to be lacking...

:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Conor