OH NO...NOT HUBBLE!

[xoxoxoBruce]

author: Warren E. Leary in the New York Times;

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - A much-anticipated service mission to extend the life of the Hubble Space Telescope could be jeopardized by a White House plan to eliminate funding for it from NASA's 2006 budget request, government officials said.

Officials in the Bush administration and in Congress, who asked not to be identified because the budget has not been officially sent to Congress, said NASA was one of the few agencies that would get a proposed budget increase next year. However, a mission to service Hubble, estimated to exceed $1 billion, will not be part of that package, they said. snip