Starship Asterisk*

Last I heard, NASA had reconsidered and were planning on returning to Hubble for one last time. Does anybody know if they are still going to fly one last maintenance mission to Hubble? It would be a shame for such a valuable resource to die from lack of support. I seem to remember they were planning on replacing the gyro's, replenishing the batteries, and installing some new instruments.

Yes. One of Mike Griffin's early decisions after he took over as NASA administrator was to try to arrange a 4th and probably final Hubble servicing mission.

The mission recently received final approval and is currently scheduled to launch in September 2008 aboard Atlantis for the STS-125 mission. It will replace the gyros and batteries, repair a malfunctioning spectrograph, and install two new instruments. Unfortunately, it looks like they won't be able to squeeze in a fix for the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which failed last month, but Hubble will still have an overall increase in capabilities and the team got good use of the camera while it was operable.

Sadly, this will be Atlantis' final mission. After STS-125, she will be retired, and the remaining shuttle missions in 2009 and 2010 will be flown by Discovery and Endeavor. This saves Atlantis from having to undergo a costly upgrade and maintenance overhaul, and makes her components available for spare parts, as needed.

Thanks, if they're not launching 'til 9/08, maybe they can still get a fix for the ACS.