NASA to Announce Hubble Plans

By MIKE SCHNEIDER

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA Administrator Michael Griffin could turn astronomers’ Halloween into Christmas with an announcement on whether he will send astronauts on a final mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

The announcement was expected Tuesday on whether he will prolong the life of an instrument that has captured some of the most spectacular images of the universe.

"It’s a bit like we know there is a big present under the Christmas tree and we have no idea what’s in it," said Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which coordinates use of Hubble.

All signs were pointing to astronomers getting their wish.

The U.S. space agency scheduled an announcement at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where the Hubble project is managed. Scheduled to attend along with Griffin was U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., a leading champion of a space shuttle mission to Hubble.

One promising sign was that Mikulski, who has led lobbying efforts on behalf of Hubble, hasn’t bothered to come up with a strategy in case the NASA administrator decided against a Hubble shuttle mission.

"It’s something that we didn’t worry about," said Mikulski spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz.

Another indicator: At least three astronauts planned to be available for a news conference in Houston should Griffin give the green light. Astronauts already have been training for Hubble-specific tasks. A mission to prolong the telescope’s life likely would be in early 2008.

Former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe canceled a Hubble mission in the wake of the Columbia shuttle disaster that killed seven astronauts in 2003. Griffin, who succeeded him, said he would reconsider the decision if the space shuttles could return to flying on a regular schedule without serious problems.

A rehab mission would keep Hubble working until about 2013. It would add two new camera instruments, upgrade aging batteries and stabilizing equipment, add new guidance sensors and repair a light-separating spectrograph. Without a servicing mission, Hubble likely would deteriorate in 2009 or 2010.

"I believe the risks are worth the reward of going into space for just about any mission, in particular the Hubble mission," said astronaut Jim Newman, who was on the last space shuttle mission to Hubble in 2002.

—

On the Net:

Hubble Space Telescope at http://hubblesite.org