The operative element here is "TV program", which in this case was fictional. But I'd be willing to bet that there were conspiracy theories floating about at the time the Hubble flubble was discovered. One of my undergraduate friends, Rodger Doxsey (now deceased) was in charge of the Hubble astronomy program for many years. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/science/space/19doxsey.html October 19, 2009 Rodger Doxsey, Astronomer Who Worked on the Hubble, Dies at 62 By DENNIS OVERBYE Rodger Doxsey, an astronomer who played a crucial below-the-decks role in keeping the Hubble Space Telescope flying and doing science in good times and bad for almost 20 years, died Tuesday in Towson, Md. ... As head of mission operations at the institute, Dr. Doxsey was the go-to guy for making the Hubble telescope work and squeezing the last bits of data out of it. Starting work a decade before the launching, he helped it deliver data in its first troubled days and led the search for ways to extend its useful life when NASA stopped sending manned missions to repair it. ... At 08:17 AM 7/17/2013, Tom Knight wrote:
I don't believe this. I looked at the error quite carefully at the time, and it really was just that they misplaced a set of washers on the test jig, due to a misplaced laser beam. And they didn't believe the "less reliable" tests that showed things were wrong. On Jul 17, 2013, at 10:00 AM, Henry Baker wrote:
While we're on the subject of speculation, I saw a TV program last night that suggested that the Hubble Space Telescope's original lens design _wasn't an error_, but a 'cover story' for some nefarious classified tests by the US DoD.