[AZ-Observing] Re: Space Telescope News
- From: Jeff Hopkins <phxjeff@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 15:53:08 -0700
>Brian Skiff posted the following to the Amastro list. Apparently,
>HST service mission 4 (tentatively scheduled for mid-2005) has been
>cancelled by NASA director Sean O'Keefe. This mission would have
>replaced the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 (WFPC2) with Wide Field
>Camera-3 (WFC3). Also, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) would
>have been installed to replace COSTAR.
>
>///Begin excerpt///
>This will probably be hitting the news soon. Here's some "inside"
>information from Debra Elmegreen passed along via Phil Massey here at
>Lowell:
>
>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
>
>///End excerpt///
>--
How sad.
How about a mission to send the HST to the moon. What a grand final
place for it. Put it in orbit around the moon until ready then land
it on hte moon and set u a lunar observatory.
Jeff
--
Jeff Hopkins
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