Hooray for Hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope is saved. This is one of the finest pieces of kit we humans have floating in space at the moment. Not only because of the science it has enabled but the pictures, like the one above of the Trapezium cluster.

An old man of the telescope world, it's expensive, it's ancient, it's falling apart and it was short-sighted when it first went up. But, boy, has it been worth it. Nasa decided to abandon the telescope after the tragic Columbia accident of 2003, arguing quite fairly that risking lives to repair Hubble further was not worth it. But, there's been a campaign amongst scientists and Hubble fans to keep it going somehow and, with the recent successful shuttle missions, Nasa director Mike Griffin has reversed the initial decision.

The next repair mission will install a new camera, replace broken gyros and carry out other repairs. Why spend $1bn to repair an ageing telescope when you have a space agency starved of money? Well, no doubt Griffin recognises that, if he wants more money to do the things he needs to do (get to the Moon and Mars), he'll need polish up the public face of the agency. Like it or loathe it, Hubble is that face. Here's to a million more brilliant pictures.