NYT Editorial: Death Sentence for the Hubble?

[Dudley_DUright]

Sean O'Keefe, the departing administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has yanked the agency's most important scientific instrument off life support. His refusal to budget any funds to service and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope looks like the petulant final act of an administrator who made a foolish decision and then refused to back down in the face of withering criticism from experts. The only uncertainty is whether the decision to let the Hubble die prematurely was solely Mr. O'Keefe's or reflects the judgment of higher-ups in the administration that servicing the Hubble would be a diversion from the president's long-range program of space exploration.

The Hubble by all accounts has been one of the most productive instruments in the history of science, largely because periodic servicing missions by shuttle astronauts have extended its life and upgraded its instruments. A fifth servicing mission had been planned, and the new instruments already built, when the Columbia disaster grounded the three remaining shuttles for repairs. Then, without any warning, Mr. O'Keefe shocked scientists by announcing that the servicing mission would be canceled for good because it would be too risky.

Nothing, it seems, can budge him from that snap judgment. When a dumbfounded Congress insisted that he seek advice from the National Academy of Sciences, he reluctantly agreed, but made it clear that nothing the academy said was apt to change his mind. He urged the academy instead to focus on ways to extend Hubble's usefulness without the help of astronauts. As it turned out, a panel of experts assembled by the academy concluded that there was little chance the robotic mission favored by Mr. O'Keefe could be mounted in time. The panel urged instead that astronauts be sent to the rescue. It judged such a flight only marginally more risky than a flight to the International Space Station.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/opinion/13sun2.html

[old blue]

1. This came from the White House, according to reports from 2 weeks ago

Who better than an outgoing administrator to take the rap for a politically unpopular and scientifically heinous decision.

link
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/hubble_reaction_050121.html