Save Hubble

Leftmost: The Whirlpool Galaxy; The Eagle Nebula

Stunning images like these may soon be harder to acquire as the 15 year life of the Hubble Telescope winds down. Shuttle safety concerns have kept maintenance missions on the ground. The Register reports:

Engineers say it has enough power to keep going until 2008, but unless some kind of servicing mission can be mounted there will be no extra-atmospheric telescope until the 2011 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Letting the Hubble fall into disrepair would be a sin. If there is anything government is made to do, it's long term vertical research of the kind the Hubble facilitates.