Hubble Upgrade in the wings

[Exfso]

Looks as though it might not be dead yet.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0512/05hubbleservicing/

[GrampianStars]

"The current target launch date is December 2007. In the latest internal shuttle manifest, which lists 18 flights to the space station and then the retirement of the fleet in 2010, SM-4 - the only non-station mission on the books - is listed as the 10th flight in the sequence."

Good as dead :mad2:

[Stu]

I still favor building a Hubble II with all the spare parts that are waiting to be sent up. Cheaper than repairing the old one and the new one could be launched from a rocket.

[Greg Bryant]

With the successor telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, being pushed further behind in its proposed launch date (now scheduled for no earlier than June 2013), it will be disappointing to have a gap (and one that could lengthen) in observing capability.

The same also applies to the proposed (albeit much shorter) gap between the shutdown of the Shuttle and the first operation of the Crew Exploration Vehicle.