How to Help Save the Hubble Space Telescope

February 2004

The recently announced bold new visions for NASA along with word of significant budget increases for the space agency aren’t all good news, as the Hubble Space Telescope is getting the proverbial shaft. Due to plans to retire the Space Shuttle fleet by the year 2010, the remaining shuttle flights will be scheduled for construction and servicing missions to the International Space Station. This means that a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission originally planned to take place in 2007 or 2008 has been scrubbed. The Hubble Space telescope has been successful because of these service missions and without them the orbiting observatory’s systems would degrade over time and eventually result in complete failure.

As amateur astronomers, we have seen what the Hubble Space Telescope is capable of, not only in its scientific discoveries, but also in its ability to captivate public interest in astronomy and space with its awe-inspiring images. While a replacement space telescope is in the works, it will be several years before it is launched, and it will be launched into orbit around the sun where it will be inaccessible to repair missions as the HST has received. It would be a terrible shame to let Hubble become yet another piece of orbiting space junk. Sky & Telescope has put together some information on what you can do to help: http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1160_1.asp

Latest news from the Hubble Space Telescope

An online petition to save the Hubble Space Telescope can be found at SaveTheHubble.org