The Hubble, the James
Webb Space Telescope and
Looking to the Future:
Space Science at a
After
eighteen years of observing the Universe, the Hubble Space Telescope is about
to be upgraded and repaired by NASA’s Shuttle astronauts in the summer of this
year. This will breathe new life into a telescope that has been described as
the most productive in history. This talk will discuss some of Hubble’s
results, describe what we hope to achieve in this last servicing mission, and
how we manage the Hubble science operation on behalf of NASA and the science
community. In addition I will show how some of the science programs and the way
we operate Hubble are paving the way for a very different space observatory,
the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The James Webb will open up new opportunities for space science in the
same way the Hubble did in the 1990’s. I
will also discuss briefly the challenges of launching a 6.5m cryogenic
telescope out to L2. As we look to the future, how this perspective has led the
Space Telescope Science Institute to take another look at our successful
partnership with NASA’s human spaceflight program as we explore the types of
space observatories we will need in the 2020 timeframe.