I suppose this is pretty naive of me as to how these things work, but couldn't NASA plan a service trip to ISS that would also include servicing Hubble while they are already in orbit, or are the distances between the two craft prohibitively far apart? Or is it more a matter of supply weights? (though I'm guessing a new Pentium-1 processor [has to be 5-year-old technology at least] and a few new gyros, a couple of propellant canisters and a new CCD chip wouldn't weigh THAT much, or...)? -Rich --- Patrick Wiggins <paw@trilobyte.net> wrote:
With new guidance parts and all the new hardware that has already been fabricated and is sitting in storage waiting for a ride to Hubble it's useful life could be extended until after NGST ( http://ngst.gsfc.nasa.gov:80/News ) can be launched early in the next decade. In fact, one of the things the folks at STScI were looking forward to was using HST and NGST in tandem.
Here's what STScI has to say on the subject: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/future
Patrick
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