Posted by Puzzled on January 16, 2000 at 15:39:53:
I'm a bit puzzled about the entire Hubble servicing philosophy. Since the on-orbit repair and replacements seem to be rather difficult (with huge amounts of pre-flight training), why don't we simply de-orbit the Hubble in the cargo bay and reboost it on the next mission. I'm sure some would say that that takes two flights where one would do, but it seems that we could schedule the pickup missions with on board science and/or satellites that could be released near Hubbles orbit. I do realize that many birds have very specific orbital requirements so there would be delicacy in scheduling. Overall, this would allow full refurbishment of systems in an environment much easier to do repair and replacement of components-on the earth. I'm sure NASA has kept all the packaging components necessary for the reorbit of the Hubble. I'm also sure to retrieve the Hubble in the cargo bay would probably require a space walk, but again, this seems much easier than the complicated on-orbit repair missions. Can someone enlighten me?