NASA drops Hubble service

WASHINGTON — NASA is scrapping plans to service the Hubble Space Telescope, either with the space shuttle or a robot repairman, a decision likely to set up a fresh confrontation with Congress over the fate of the orbiting observatory.

Sources said the White House, in consultation with National Aeronautics and Space Administration administrator Sean O'Keefe, had decided to eliminate the Hubble funding from the 2006 budget because the cost is expected to exceed $1 billion.

The sources said the administration made the decision despite its intention to ask Congress for a 4.6 percent budget increase for NASA to $17 billion. The request is expected to reorient NASA's priorities toward President Bush's "Vision for Space Exploration" to the moon and Mars.

The sources, who declined to be identified because the budget won't be rolled out until Feb. 7, could not confirm a report by the online news service Space.com that the budget would include money to develop a robotic vehicle to steer the telescope into the sea when its batteries or gyros give out, probably after 2007.

O'Keefe spokesman Glenn Mahone declined comment.

The decision to abandon Hubble servicing was certain to rekindle the uproar that accompanied O'Keefe's original announcement a year ago to cancel a space-shuttle trip to service Hubble.

Hubble fans inundated NASA with e-mail and protests. By midyear, NASA had decided to try to service Hubble with a robotic mission, a plan scheduled for preliminary review in March.