Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore are ecstatic that Hubble will be repaired.
“We are quite happy we?ll be able to get two new science instruments aboard the Hubble,” said institute spokeswoman Cheryl Gundy. “It will be like having a new telescope.”
NASA administrators announced Tuesday that a fourth repair mission would be flown to fix and upgrade the telescope.
The decision means up to five years more work on the Hubble for the Institute, and that some of the contracts for the $900 million repair mission will go to firms throughout the Baltimore/Washington region.
The Space Telescope Science Institute, under the umbrella of the Association of Universities Researching Astronomy, has the contract to manage the science mission.
“Thevehicle is actually flown out of Goddard,” said Michael Weiss, deputy program manager for the Hubble Space Telescope Program. STSI takes proposals on how to use the telescope and sends plotting and range information to Goddard.
Maryland firms will take a big slice of the $900 million mission.
Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, which originally built the Hubble Telescope, as well as Beltsville-based Swales Aerospace, Orbital Science Corporation in Dulles and Washington-based Jackson and Tull are among the regional firms that have existing contracts with NASA related to the Hubble program.
NASA will not award any new contracts for the repair mission, which is expected to launch in May 2008 and last 11 days.
Most of the prep work will be performed at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, including building and testing much of the equipment, Weiss said.
In addition to building two new camera instruments to be installed on the telescope, engineers at Goddard are responsible for all 22,000 pounds of hardware that will fly on the mission, Weiss said. The telescope itself is also operated out of Goddard.
Lockheed Martin has been a major player in the Hubble program. The company originally built the telescope and has provided ongoing support for the four subsequent servicing missions.
Staff writer Katie Wilmeth contributed to this report.
