Keck , last I checked was out of operation due to the recent Earthquake, and can only observe
a limited portion of the sky. The interferometer is AMAZING when it works.
It doesnt work for all objects, or at all wavelengths.

Its a nice dream to think Webb will really happen by 2013. Spitzer was originally conceived
about 30 *YEARS* ago. I sadly doubt Webb will be up by 2013.

Hst has diffraction limited optical imaging that exceeds most Earth based telescopes
and can integrate longer, and can observe anywhere in the ENTIRE sky.
I sincerely hope we service it before its orbit decays, upgrading the STIS instrument would be nice also. Its not possible to observe at those wavelengths with ground based telescopes.

Plus years of bitter experience over here teaches one to be sceptical and cynical. It was my father who told me the “Believe it when it happens” quote

Darn those metric/english conversions!

Carlos

p.s. from a Country where BOTH English and Metric measurements co-exist, not always peacefully.

Nope, no lenses in the optical path: the main assembly and all the current instruments use mirrors exclusively.

Maybe I’m just nitpicking, but I think it’s important. Hubble has multiple lens and mirrors.

And Gary 7: it’s not astigmatism, it’s spherical aberration.

Can´t wait for the new Deep-Field-Pictures

Mikulski didn’t impress me that much. As well as the “lens” bit, she sounded to me as if she kept calling the NASA administrator “Griffith”. It’s Griffin!

As for Sticks’ skepticism, there are already hundreds of people working on the Hubble servicing mission (soon to be thousands), there are two instruments all but ready to go, NASA’s whole flight manifest is being reworked to fit this mission in, hundreds of millions of dollars are in the process of being spent. This mission will only not go if someone comes up with an extremely good reason for it not to.

I don’t think NASA would make this announcement just to “silence critics”. Much of the actions from NASA higher-ups makes t clear that critical voices are not so much a concern. I’m not saying they necessarily ignore people who disagree, just that they don’t do things just for appeasement.

But as they say here in the UK Civil Service, “Believe it when it happens”

All sorts of things can go wrong here, and saying they plan to do it is just a way of trying to silence the critics already complaining that science is being cut back at NASA.

Gary 7, your post is just fine. People here should know by now to be accepting of spelling errors and typos, unless they really don’t make sense. That’s not an issue for you.

I’m a Maryland resident, and I have nothing but good things to say about Barbara Mikulski. We agree more often than not, anyway. As many bad things we hear about how corrupt and useless Congress is (and I’ve said it too), it’s only fair to point out when they do something right.

I note I’ve had more spelling errors in this one post than in the previous 50. Guess I should have stopped celebrating last night after the first glass of wine,,,Yeah, I know, I was anticipating the announcement, but any excuse for a party Dude,,,

Gary 7