Anyone interested in answering Hubble Telescope question?

Question

They keep referring that next Shuttle Mission to Hubble as the last. What do they mean: Are they ending Hubble mission; Something other than Shuttle will be servicing it or best it will not need anymore service?

Answer 1

The last *scheduled* mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope is scheduled for October, 2008. In 2010, the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled for launch as a replacement for Hubble.

Answer 2

The next shuttle mission to the Hubble is a service mission to extend the life of the Hubble, and it will be it's last service mission. So, the Hubble will continue to be used for a few more years.

Believe it or not, the Hubble has become obsolete. There have been tremendous improvements in "adaptive optics" that compensate for our atmosphere, and a few ground-based telescopes perform better than the Hubble.

Another space-based telescope to replace the Hubble is being planned for launch sometime in the future as well.

Answer 3

Hubble just made it's 100,000 rotation around the Earth.  In the years since it went up, technology has changed.  Think tanks are working on the next generation.  I know our university is working on things for NASA.

Answer 4

The hubble is being retired

Answer 5

The great telescope has been in service 18 years already and is showing its age. The next maintenance mission (which actually had be the source of quite a bit of debate) will give the old workhorse a few more years of service, beyond the date where the space shuttle will be retired (therefore with no craft able to service Hubble in the inventory). It is not known how much longer it will last after, if anything critical fails after that mission next october, that will be the end. With a little luck, there still could be several good years left in it.

Answer 6

they will not fix it anymore when it breaks, it will break and no longer be used.

hubble has served its purpose well, but it was not designed to last forever.