Hubble Telescope’s Days Numbered, NASA Says

WASHINGTON — The Hubble Space Telescope will be allowed to degrade and eventually become useless, as NASA changes focus to President Bush’s plans to send humans to the moon, Mars and beyond, officials said Friday.

NASA canceled all space shuttle servicing missions to the Hubble, which has revolutionized the study of astronomy with its striking images of the universe.

John Grunsfeld, NASA’s chief scientist, said NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe made the decision to cancel the fifth space shuttle service mission to the Hubble when it became clear there was not enough time to conduct it before the shuttle is retired. The servicing mission was considered essential to enable the orbiting telescope to continue to operate.

“This is a sad day,” said Grunsfeld, but he said the decision “is the best thing for the space community.”

He said the decision was influenced by the president’s new space initiative, which calls for NASA to start developing the spacecraft and equipment for voyages to the moon and later to Mars. The president’s plan also called for the space shuttle to be retired by 2010. Virtually all of the shuttle’s remaining flights would be used to complete construction of the international space station.

The shuttle has been grounded since the Columbia disaster nearly a year ago.

Grunsfeld said Bush “directed us to use this precious resource” -- the shuttle -- toward completing the space station and fulfilling U.S. obligations to the 15 partner nations.

Without servicing missions, he said, the Hubble should continue operating until 2007 or 2008, “as long as we can.” NASA already was planning to replace the Hubble with a new, improved version, called the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2011.

The Hubble has revolutionized astronomy.

Using images from the craft, scientists have determined the age of the universe, about 13.7 billion years, and discovered that a mysterious energy, called the dark force, is causing all of the objects in the universe to move apart at an accelerating rate. This force is still poorly understood.

The observatory has ailing gyroscopes that were to be replaced on the servicing mission, which already has been delayed by the Columbia accident.

Grunsfeld said the Hubble had three good gyroscopes and one that was not working well. Software was being developed to work with only two gyroscopes, he said, but the telescope would not have the same capabilities.