HUBBLE TROUBLE
I couldn't believe my eyes when I read in
this story that NASA will abandon the Hubble Space Telescope, ostensibly because our precious resources are needed more to satisfy obligations toward the International Space Station and to fulfill President Bush's grand space vision (see below).
How many people's working lives and millions of dollars went into putting Hubble in space and keeping it in repair? Now we want to let the whole assembly just fall to earth (or otherwise be disposed)?
I don't know about you, but I don't have much confidence that the idiots who are willing to give up this hard-won and unquestionably successful space observation tool for "what's in the box," will be able to take us to the moon and planets. Putting an RC car on Mars is a noteworthy achievement, but finishing the space station, putting a permanent base on the moon, and sending people to Mars will take a lot more of the right stuff -- especially common sense -- than the current crew seems to have.
