NASA budget kills Hubble telescope

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050207/full/050207-4.html

The Hubble Space Telescope will be scrapped, according to NASA officials who presented the agency’s budget for 2006 on 7 February.

No money has been set aside for a vital servicing mission, which would replace the telescope’s ageing batteries and gyros, but would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Instead, NASA has given Hubble just US$93 million, with the lion’s share earmarked for nudging it out of orbit. NASA engineers are expected to deliver a report in March on how to retrieve the telescope safely.

NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe says that the budget reflects President George W. Bush’s commitment to manned space exploration missions, which has shifted the agency’s focus towards the Moon and Mars.

[Factual expletives deleted.]