re hst servicing mission scheduled for days in apr lambda msfc nasa gov bday lambda msfc nasa gov brian day writes rdouglas stsci edu rob douglas writes but try to land a shuttle with that big huge telescope in the back and you could have problems the shuttle just isn t designed to land with that much weight in the payload is hst really that much heavier than a spacelab i can t speak to sheer mass but part of the problem is that hst wasn t built to ever be brought back down it s not built for those kinds of jolt forces and there is no support cradle for it which is additional weight that would be required insisting on perfect safety is for people who don t have the balls to live in the real world mary shafer nasa ames dryden fred mccall dseg ti com i don t speak for others and they don t speak for me
