Aug 14 2003

From The Space Library

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Current revision

NASA released the final report of the Hubble Space TelescopeJames Webb Space Telescope (HST-JWST) Transition Plan Review Panel, an advisory panel assembled to review NASA's plans for removing the HST from service as early as 2011, when NASA was preparing to launch the JWST. John N. Bahcall of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, had chaired the independent panel of astronomers. The panel recommended three options to NASA: 1) to launch two additional Shuttle-servicing missions to the HST in 2005 and 2010, to maximize the scientific productivity of the telescope; 2) to launch one Shuttle-servicing mission before the end of 2006, to replace gyroscopes and, possibly, to install a propulsion device to de-orbit the craft once scientific operations had become impossible, or, alternatively, to de-orbit the craft using an autonomous robotic system; and 3) if no Shuttle missions were possible, to launch a robotic mission to install a propulsion module to bring down the HST in a controlled descent once scientific operations had become impossible. The panel also described various ways to extract maximum scientific return from the HST if NASA opted for any of the recommended three scenarios. (NASA, “Panel Identifies Three Options for Space Telescope Transition,” news release 03-264, 14 August 2003, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/augHQ_03264_telescope_transition.html (accessed 23 January 2009); NASA Space Telescope Transition Plan Review Panel, “Report of the HST-JWST Transition Panel: Executive Summary” (report, Washington, DC, August 2003), http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Public_Reports.html (accessed 23 January 2009); Sam Silverstein, “Hubble Review Panel Urges Second Extra Servicing Mission,” Space News, 19 August 2003.

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