sourceMIAMI: A former Top Gun stunt pilot is to lead a shuttle mission 515km above Earth to rescue the Hubble space telescope.
Reversing a previous ruling that such a voyage would be too dangerous and costly, NASA head Michael Griffin has announced that seven astronauts would be sent to repair the $US1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) telescope, which has been responsible for solving some of the greatest mysteries of the cosmos.
"While there is an inherent risk in all space-flight activities, the desire to preserve a truly international asset like the Hubble space telescope makes doing this mission the right course of action," he said.
Without new batteries and an instrument upgrade, the 16-year-old deep-space observatory will go into meltdown within two to three years, depriving scientists and spacewatchers of what is considered the finest eye in the sky since Galileo perfected the invention of the telescope 400 years ago.
Tags: TELESCOPE | Shuttle | Mission | NASA | Miami | Hubble
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