Appearently waste in defense spending is not a total waste.
National Reconnosaince office donated to NASA two (2) Hubble Space Telescope clones that were built in secret and originally intended for high resolution spying. These clones appearently match Hubble's powers. But they are redundant becasue NRO has something better.
Of course the original Hubble is 19 years old and will reach end of life and be de-orbited in 2 years. Originally astronomy community was expected to be without any optical and near-infrared space telescope until the James Webb scope, mired in cost overruns, eventually go up in the next few centuries.
Now if only NASA could find the means to launch these two unexpected windfalls so they could be put to use.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/...?hpt=hp_t3
National Reconnosaince office donated to NASA two (2) Hubble Space Telescope clones that were built in secret and originally intended for high resolution spying. These clones appearently match Hubble's powers. But they are redundant becasue NRO has something better.
Of course the original Hubble is 19 years old and will reach end of life and be de-orbited in 2 years. Originally astronomy community was expected to be without any optical and near-infrared space telescope until the James Webb scope, mired in cost overruns, eventually go up in the next few centuries.
Now if only NASA could find the means to launch these two unexpected windfalls so they could be put to use.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/...?hpt=hp_t3
