Friday, December 12, 2008

Hubble's Replacement Now Taking Shape

Technicians gingerly handle the honeycombed beryllium mirror segment that will eventually join 17 others to form the primary mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope. Axsys

From SKY Telescope:

Against a backdrop of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, no one quite knows what will happen to NASA's future plans once Barack Obama becomes president. Will Michael Griffin remain the agency's chief? Will plans to return astronauts to the Moon be scrapped? Will space exploration in general — viewed by some as frivolous waste and by others as a ray of accomplishment amid all the bleakness — be slashed to a bare minimum?

We'll know soon enough. In the meantime, NASA continues to work toward assembling and launching the eventual replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope, currently the crown jewel of its astronomy program.

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