Hubble's 15th Birthday

BlakeCaldwell writes "Wired is reporting the 15th birthday of the Hubble telescope. FTA: "Fifteen years ago Monday, at 12:38 p.m. Pacific Time, astronaut Steven Hawley directed the space shuttle's robotic arm to release the Hubble Space Telescope 381 miles above the Earth, launching an era of unprecedented scientific discoveries. Since that day in 1990, the bus-sized telescope has taken more than 700,000 photos of planets, stars and other celestial bodies.""

Happy birthaday

[janek78]

Well, I suppose "Happy birtday" is in place. Kind of like wishing all the best for the future to your 90 years old dying grandma, considered Hubble's impeding doom. :(

Re:Happy birthaday

[George Tirebuyer]

Perhaps we should put a rather heavy tax on copyright renewals and use the funds to keep Hubble going. Call it a Mickey Mouse Tax.

Re:Happy birthaday

[bill_mcgonigle]

Kind of like wishing all the best for the future to your 90 years old dying grandma, considered Hubble's impeding doom.

I suspect Grandma has a few years left in her yet. I mean, if you're sending a robotic mission all the way up to Hubble and you have to dock with Hubble to deorbit her, well, and it's just some gyroscopes that need replacement and they were designed to be replaced by hamfisted astronauts in spacesuits... well, NASA is full of rocket scientists.

What ROI

[perdu]

It's hard to think of any other scientific program that has provided so much valuable research insight -- and at the same time such a huge public awareness and appreciation. All this after getting off to such an infamous start!

Long Live Hubble!

Which mean in a few days

[g-san]

A whole room full of NASA Engineers went, "Oh shit."