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" Three years after the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia forced NASA to cancel repairs to its most famous astronomical tool, NASA pumped new life into the Hubble Space Telescope today, announcing one last shuttle maintenance visit tentatively scheduled for May 2008. Many scientists feared that the Hubble, which has had its share of difficulties and malfunctions to go along with myriad discoveries, images and details of the universe&amp;#039;s origin throughout its 16 years in orbit, had just a couple more years of functionality left. But despite funding shortages last year that put the observatory&amp;#039;s future in peril once again, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin seems to have aligned a robust $900-million repair trip\u2014the telescope&amp;#039;s fifth\u2014that should keep the Hubble running until at least 2013. That&amp;#039;s not to say the seven astronauts aboard Discovery will by flying without risk. Should something go wrong with their shuttle, the crew&amp;#039;s path toward the Hubble&amp;#039;s orbit would be too far away to seek safety aboard the International Space Station\u2014a major precaution installed after the Columbia disaster. Griffin said at a press conference today that a second shuttle would be available for a rescue launch, though without any absolute guarantees of success. &amp;quot;While there is an inherent risk in all spaceflight activities, the desire to preserve a truly international asset like the Hubble Space Telescope makes doing this mission the right course of action,&amp;quot; Griffin said. The 11-day operation by Discovery will require five separate space walks to replace aging batteries and gyroscopes in addition to the installation of two new instruments\u2014an ultraviolet &amp;quot;cosmic flashlight&amp;quot; and a high-powered camera that&amp;#039;s sensitive to more wavelengths, and thus more galaxies, than rusty old Hubble currently can see. Be sure to listen to this summer&amp;#039;s podcast on the future of the shuttle program, the ISS and Discovery&amp;#039;s crew. \u2013Matt Sullivan NASAs Michael Griffin approved repairs to the Hubble Telescope Tuesday. (NASA) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a993/4200786/>