Will NASA's Hubble Servicing Mission Save the Telescope?

[russ_watters]

I thought it was toast - apparently not: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2006-09-21-atlantis-hubble_x.htm

A safe landing Thursday by space shuttle Atlantis after a nearly flawless mission brightened the prospects for a repair flight to the ailing Hubble Space Telescope, space experts said.
"NASA is ready to make a positive decision and was mainly waiting for a successful" Atlantis flight, said space policy scholar John Logsdon of George Washington University. "I would be extremely surprised if they didn't give a go-ahead."

NASA chief Michael Griffin said after the landing that he'll decide in late October whether to send a shuttle to revive the telescope, which launched in 1990 and will shut down within a few years unless it gets new batteries and other parts.

Sweet.

 

[check]

I heard the original plan (when HST was brand new) was to have a shuttle return it to Earth after it was decommissioned but that was later deemed too risky because of the heavy load on the shuttle during a re-entry. Would have been cool to see the actual HST hanging in the Smithsonian though sometime in the future instead of the mock up they have.