Nasa to decide Hubble's fate (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Irene Klotz
Kennedy Space Center, Florida

The US space agency (Nasa) is to debate whether to send astronauts on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Without another servicing call by shuttle astronauts, Hubble is expected to last another two to three years.

At the crux of this is whether to risk flying astronauts on the shuttle without the International Space Station available as an emergency shelter.

Nasa set up the station as an orbital safe haven after the Columbia shuttle broke apart on re-entry in 2003.
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The shuttles cannot fly from Hubble's orbit to reach the station, so if a Hubble repair crew's ship was too damaged to safely fly home, Nasa has little time to mount a rescue before the shuttle's power runs out.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6088076.stm

Sort of an update; this debate has been ongoing for awhile now, and had come very close to being decided unfavorably.