The Hubble Space Telescope is a joint ESA/NASA project and was launched in 1990 by the Space Shuttle mission STS-31 into a low-Earth orbit 600 km above the ground. During its lifetime Hubble has become one of the most important science projects ever, making enormous contributions to our understanding of the Universe.

The Hubble is due to be shut down and burned up in re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. There is controversy over the timing of this event. Current NASA planning is to destroy the Hubble at an early date, in order to conserve funds for the Hubble successor and this is before Hubble's successor has been launched, is online and is working correctly.

Has anyone considered the possibility of the Hubble being terminated before a replacement is on line and then having some political/economic event occur in which the funds for the replacement are cut to save money. Space research and space travel are alway popular targets for those seeking to cut "unneccesary or excessive government expenditures". This should be a real concern for folks who consider the Hubble an essential scientific tool, (All this is my humble personal opinion.)

If you believe that the Hubble's working life should be extended as long as it is capable of perfoming the mission it was launched for, you need to contact your Congressional representatives and NASA to express your desire that the Hubble's life be extended as long as possible or at least until a replacment exists and is functional- US House of Representatives and US Senate and NASA. Also see this article from Sky and Telescope.

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