Posted: Fri, Jan 21, 2005, 6:40 PM ET (2340 GMT)
NASA plans to kill a proposal to develop a robotic mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, planning instead only to deorbit the spacecraft, Space News reported Friday afternoon. According to the report, NASA will ask for no funding for the Hubble repair mission in its proposed fiscal year 2006 budget. NASA did receive nearly $300 million in its 2005 budget to begin work on a robotic repair mission, and had awarded a study contract earlier this month to a Canadian company, MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. The robotic servicing option had proven controversial, and a National Research Council report last month concluded that a shuttle servicing mission, like the one NASA canceled a year ago, was the only viable option for repairing the orbiting observatory. A formal announcement by NASA of its plans is expected by February 7, the day the FY2006 budget proposal is released.

Related Links:

•  Space News article
•  SPACE.com followup article