Hubble to be abandoned

In all fairness, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report carries some of the blame for this. NASA was mandated with insuring that shuttle crews could repair broken wing leading edge panels on orbit. This is very difficult when the shuttle is docked to ISS, and damn near impossible when the shuttle is on an independent flight. To come up with a means of doing this for only one flight between now and shuttle retirement (given that the shuttle will be retired in 2010, also for CAIB-mandated reasons) is a bit of a stretch. (That is not to say it is a pity about the Hubble - there is no guarantee that its replacement, the Webb, will work).

But the decision is defensible.

Here is the internal memo of the decision.

HST was only suppost to operate for 15 years anyway.